54 acre marijuana bust in Fresno County

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A huge pot bust in Fresno County Thursday morning kept local and federal investigators busy all day long.

54 acre marijuana bust in Fresno County

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The Fresno County Sheriff's Office has been taking aim at pot farms all week and Action News has been following along. Thursday morning, investigators announced a major pot bust on California near Indianola in Fresno County.

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Find out more here, http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8274994

50-acre marijuana farm near Sanger raided...

50-acre marijuana farm near Sanger raided...

Fresno County sheriff's deputies and federal agents raided a giant marijuana plantation near Sanger early Thursday morning, seizing thousands of plants and taking about 50 people into custody.

The pot-growing operation on California Avenue east of McCall Avenue was elaborate, with observation towers and living quarters for workers, plants in various states of growth lined in neatly cultivated rows, and a six-foot cyclone fence topped with barbed wire and covered in plastic sheeting to prevent passers-by from looking inside.

But the pot farm had not escaped the notice of residents or law officers. During the early-morning raid, a passing driver stopped to tell Sanger Police Chief Tom Klose that the farm had been there a long time; the chief reassured him that it was not a secret to police, either.

Sheriff Margaret Mims, who described the farm as part of "a domestic drug-trafficking cartel," said it wasn't the first time deputies had conducted a pot bust at the farm.

Mims said deputies were aware it was operating again.

Sheriff's deputies assisted in November 2010 when agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided the field, Lt. Rick Ko said. "It had to do with smuggling out of state," Ko said. But he said he could provide no further details because the federal investigation is still ongoing.

All the marijuana plants were pulled off the property last year, but sheriff's officials were not surprised to see a new crop this year, Ko said. "It's a huge problem in Fresno County and in the whole state of California," he said.

Deputies worked 12 hours in 90-plus degree heat Thursday to rip out marijuana plants. Five were treated for heat-related illness and one was hospitalized but is recovering, Ko said. "We'll finish Friday," he said.

Besides sheriff's deputies, DEA agents and U.S. marshals took part in the raid, which began at sunrise as officers surrounded the field and ordered the workers to surrender. Mims said there was no resistance from those who were taken into custody. They were being interviewed to determine what charges they might face.

Just who was in charge of the operation is unclear. Fresno County tax assessor's records list Goon Pattanumotana of Fresno as the owner of the 54-acre parcel, but Pattanumotana said he has leased out the property to several farmers and has no direct oversight of what is grown there.

"I've kind of lost track of what's going on," he said.

Ko said property owners should be responsible for knowing if something illegal is happening on their property. But Sonia De La Rosa, spokeswoman for the Fresno County District Attorney's Office, said responsibility can depend on whether a property owner knew about and took part in illegal activities.

Records show Pattanumotana bought the parcel in 2005 for $1,900,000. It was assessed in 2010 at a value of $2,011,516.

Pattanumotana, a real estate broker and adjunct instructor of economics at Willow International Center, said he bought the land as an investment and rents out parcels to Asian farmers who grow vegetables. He said he made a profit on property that he sold before the real estate crash and invested in the Sanger land for tax purposes. Pattanumotana said he wants to hold onto the parcel until the market comes back. In the meantime, he leases out the land in order to pay about $22,000 a year in property tax. The problem, he said, is that some of his lessees have turned around and leased land to others.

"I would like to evict them, but they have threatened to sue," he said. "It's very confusing."

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/07/28/2480628/50-acre-marijuana-farm-near-sanger.html#ixzz1TT7J9UqR

Insane, and I thought it was bad here !!

lol ballsy. must be a mexican related operation.

doing it out in the open like that is just so dumb. but then to get busted and do it again a year later in the same place? screams mexicans.

headiez247 said:

lol ballsy. must be a mexican related operation.

doing it out in the open like that is just so dumb. but then to get busted and do it again a year later in the same place? screams mexicans.

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its really hard to hide 54 acres of weed. get greedy get busted

Endur said:

Deputies worked 12 hours in 90-plus degree heat Thursday to rip out marijuana plants. Five were treated for heat-related illness and one was hospitalized but is recovering, Ko said. "We'll finish Friday," he said.

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Thanks for posting the article endur.

n e way this part cracked me up.. the police had to work 12 hours and 5 of em got sick lol, 12 hours is sometimes a regular workday for me and alot of people. prolly good for em, mabey the fat asses lost some weight

see what happens when they have to do a little bit of work!!! bout time they have to work for that check!! just wish they would have found something more constructive to do with their time rather then lookin for pot!! i mean look at all the money and time they have "WAISTED" LOL

What a Huge Garden!

Damn I feel bad they got busted but how fucking stupid do you have to be to grow at a spot that just got busted the year before? That's a pretty big grow too. Hispanic last name, huge outdoor grow, probable mexicans who are involved in meth/coke/guns ect.

yeah, who ever was runnin' that place was seriously disengaged from anything resembling reality lol... Might as well put an ad next to a donut shop reading "I have a HUGE illegal garden here where I thumb my nose at LEO daily, please bust my ass...."

54 acres is way too much fucking bud sorry, overkill & greedy.

I love the owner though claiming he had no clue

$2 M piece of property and the guy didn't have a clue? c'mon man, that shit don't float.

That's a pretty big grow too. Hispanic last name, huge outdoor grow, probable mexicans who are involved in meth/coke/guns ect.

how many Caucasian looking Californians have a Spanish sounding last name? Maybe you're jumping to conclusions, maybe you're right?

Whoever they, they definitely had basketball sized cajones!


yeah, who ever was runnin' that place was seriously disengaged from anything resembling reality lol... Might as well put an ad next to a donut shop reading "I have a HUGE illegal garden here where I thumb my nose at LEO daily, please bust my ass...."

Maybe half the local fuzz were on their payroll? ever thought of that? Maybe some do-gooder dropped a time to the Feds?


a six-foot cyclone fence topped with barbed wire and covered in plastic sheeting to prevent passers-by from looking inside.

If I were them I'd of planted a ten rows of corn around the property rather than something as obvious as a plastic sheet covered cyclone fence with bardeb wire! ..as you would only need to protect it from rippers for about 4 or 5 weeks before harvest.

The guys first name is Goon

There doesn't seem any way this would not get busted. Guard towers, huge fence, etc......

This doesn't even seem like something you could pull off in the sticks. Let alone near a city like Fresno. As I watch the video, all I can think, is these guys were tripping. Did they think it would just blend in with all the other farms in the area. That nobody would notice.

For the record. Central Americans tend to grow in national forest land. Asians tend to grow on private property owned by other Asians. Just from what I've seen and read. You don't hear about too many Central Americans getting busted running huge indoor spots, but it happens with Asians regularly. It's because they know other Asians who own buildings, while the Central Americans do not. The same goes for farm land.

It's legal there, right?

lol

Endur said:

Pattanumotana, a real estate broker and adjunct instructor of economics at Willow International Center, said he bought the land as an investment and rents out parcels to Asian farmers who grow vegetables. He said he made a profit on property that he sold before the real estate crash and invested in the Sanger land for tax purposes. Pattanumotana said he wants to hold onto the parcel until the market comes back. In the meantime, he leases out the land in order to pay about $22,000 a year in property tax. The problem, he said, is that some of his lessees have turned around and leased land to others.

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No guys, Mexicans do their big grows on Government land like National forests, This is Asian work. Though, I'm not sure what Asian nation has names like Pattanumotana. Cambodian maybe?

Pattanumotana on google showed up a doctor with that name with a Thai education.

anyway, 54 acres !!!! really ???

Doing some math in my head, 54 acres would be about 2 miles long and two miles wide.

I wonder how they thought they would make to harvest, or beyond?