Over 11,000 Marijuana Plants Seized and One Arrested in Kern County Pot Raid
KERN COUNTY—Over 11,000 marijuana plants were seized and one man was arrested in a multi-jurisdictional raid on two covert pot farms located in the hills just outside Bakersfield California on Wednesday.
Pedro Pantoja, 39, was booked into the Kern County Sheriff’s jail for cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sales and conspiracy.
According to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the operation took place on June 4, and was carried out by deputies from the Sheriff’s Office Major Violator Unit and SWAT team, along with agents from the U.S. Forest Service, DEA, HIDTA, Cal-MMET, KNET and GSS-I.
With the assistance of a sheriff’s helicopter, several teams of deputies, officers and agents hiked into a rural location in the Mill Creek Mountain area near the Democrat Fire Station on Highway 178, in an attempt to capture suspects actively working two marijuana gardens.
However, Pantoja was the only suspect taken into custody, as two others escaped.
Authorities seized approximately 5,698 plants from one garden and 5,471 from the other, along with several canisters of banned pesticides, which had been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.
