Point Reyes Light - September 30, 2004
341 pot plants found at Pt. Reyes Station
By Jacob Resneck
Sheriff’s deputies and Park Service rangers last Thursday seized 341 mature marijuana plants growing beside Papermill Creek less than a mile from downtown Point Reyes Station.
No one was arrested, but Lt. Scott Anderson, commander of the West Marin substation, said the taskforce heard one or two people crashing through thick brush when its members approached two circular pot patches, which were hidden in the brush.
Lt. Anderson said part of the taskforce tried to follow the suspects while another part tried to block escape routes. Apparently, the suspects avoided arrest by crawling under brush or fleeing cross-country, he said.
The marijuana was spotted last Wednesday by a deputy in a helicopter. Deputies and rangers worked through Thursday morning, hauling away the plants, some of which were already harvested or drying.
Rangers helped deputies
Assisting Lt. Anderson and deputies Josh Todt and Brenndon Bosse were rangers Chance Jones and Roger from Point Reyes National Seashore. The rangers "are here as extra manpower," Lt. Anderson said during the raid, noting that the pot was growing less than a mile from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
The illicit patches were on the north bank of Papermill Creek near the base of Black Mountain, several hundred yards from the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road. Lt. Anderson said the property belongs to Barbara Nobmann, and the pot was grown out of sight without her knowledge.
The substation commander speculated growers may have been getting to property along the abandoned railroad bed that runs from Point Reyes Station up Papermill/Lagunitas Creek. On Sept. 8, a Mesa Road resident notified deputies she had seen two Latino men climb over the fence at the EAH construction site, and Anderson suspects they were en route to the creekside pot patches.
Mexicans growing pot
US Drug Enforcement Agency and Marin deputies have said they are aware of Mexicans being brought into the US for the sole purpose of growing marijuana. In August 1997, deputies confiscated 2,100 plants off the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road on Red Hill. No one was arrested , but empty Mexican-food cans and Spanish-language magazines were found at the site.
In last week’s raid, empty salsa containers and tortilla packets were found at the garden. Some of the items found will be fingerprinted and processed as evidence, Lt. Anderson said.
The marijuana was burned that afternoon at the county corporation yard in Nicasio. County firefighters and Public Works employees helped out. The pot bust was the second in West Marin this month. Two weeks ago, a crop of 50 plants was discovered on a Chileno Valley Ranch.