Marijuana Garden Raided in Forest

Narcotics detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department have raided a marijuana garden in Los Padres National Forest, confiscating 25 3- to 5-foot-tall plants growing in plastic buckets.

The garden had an estimated value of $100,000 and was about a mile from the Maricopa Highway near Ojai, said Lt. Craig Husband.

A tip led investigators to the location Tuesday.

“We find numerous cultivations over the summer in the back country,” Husband said. Compared to other such gardens, it was “very basic,” Husband said.

The plants had been well cared for and showed signs of having been recently watered, Husband said. Each plant would have yielded a pound of marijuana at maturity.

Despite its street value, the marijuana garden was “relatively small for a back country grove,” Husband said. In 1995, deputies found a 4,000-plant marijuana garden in the forest.

Several items were collected during this week’s raid in an attempt to find fingerprints and identify the grower.

Some of the plants will be kept for evidence--the amount depends on the size of the garden--and the rest will be burned, Husband said.

No arrests have been made.