A 52-year-old man was arrested last week after more than 11,000 mature marijuana plants with a street value of more than $45 million were discovered.
Salvador Huitron, of San Jose, was booked into Santa Clara County Jail and charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale. He was unarmed.
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office special operations deputies in conjunction with Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, DEA, DOJ, BNE and Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team, State Fish and Game, San Benito County Sheriff’s Office and Mid Peninsula Park Rangers helped dismantle the marijuana cultivation.
The 30-man team apprehended Huitron during their continued clearing of Illicit Marijuana gardens in the Mount Umunhum area.
According to Special Operations Division of the Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Joe Waldherr the nine gardens yielded a total of 11,161 plants. The bust is in addition to the 10,000 Marijuana plants seized at the same location earlier.
So far this year, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department Marijuana Suppression Team has seized and destroyed over 42,000 marijuana plants with a street value of $168 million. In addition to the Marijuana, three suspects have been arrested in raids this year.
The Marijuana Suppression Team is part of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Unit and consists of two full time deputies and a sergeant. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services funds most of the program. The program’s mission is to minimize marijuana availability through investigations, crop destructions, arrests, prosecutions of cultivators and traffickers, to deter cultivation and potential growing areas and to seize and initiate forfeiture of perpetrator’s assets.
