California: Man Sentenced To 7 Years For Marijuana Cultivation

[Jacob Redmond]

A Eureka man was sentenced Friday to seven years and three months in prison and ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution for conspiring to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and for depredation of public lands and resources, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

According to court documents, Arturo Alcazar-Tapia, 22, and his brother, Isidro Alcazar?Tapia, 26, both of Eureka, conspired to grow more than 20,000 marijuana plants at two sites in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Trinity County.

The marijuana was packaged for distribution at a house in Eureka. On August 4, 2014, law enforcement executed a search warrant at the Alcazar-Tapia home in Eureka and found 33 pounds of processed marijuana divided into one-pound packages and more than $6,000 in cash.

At a cultivation site at Big French Creek, agents located and destroyed approximately 7,980 marijuana plants and arrested co?defendant Ricky Martin Huerta, 21, of Eureka. At a site at Hobo Gulch Road, agents located and destroyed approximately 13,642 marijuana plants.

The marijuana cultivation caused significant damage to the land and natural resources of the forest that provides habitat for several threatened and endangered animal species.

At the Big French Creek site, agents observed hundreds of holes dug in the dirt containing soluble fertilizer, bags of trash, empty fertilizer bags, propane tanks, and water lines diverting water from a stream into the marijuana garden.

Analysts estimate that cleaning the Big French Creek site will cost the U.S. Forest Service more than $4,000. Agents observed similar destruction at the Hobo Gulch Road site. Analysts estimate that cleaning the Hobo Gulch Road site will cost the U.S. Forest Service approximately $13,000.

All three defendants pleaded guilty in January.

On June 16, Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. sentenced Huerta to two years and eight months in prison, and on August 7, Judge Burrell sentenced Isidro Alcazar-Tapia to 87 months in prison and ordered restitution of $17,000. A fourth defendant, Victor Manuel Alvarez?Contreras is currently a fugitive.

This case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force, the North State Marijuana Team, and the Trinity County Sheriff's Office. Assistant United States Attorney Christiaan Highsmith prosecuted the case.

News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Man Sentenced To 7 Years For Marijuana Cultivation
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Photo Credit: Rick Wilking / Reuters
Website: KRCRTV News

 

[RaysDad]

If they can make bail they'll scamper back to Old Mexico.

RD

 

[bobrown14]

I'm a fan of legalization, but +13K plants on public land, that's getting greedy. They should have been arrested to trespassing and tax evasion. That would land them in jail for a much longer sentence and justifiably so. Growing on public land is pretty ballsy. I know a bunch of folks do this but its really illegal, not so much the cannabis growing although that much is, but using public land for profit. Only oil companies and folks with deep pockets get to do that sort of thing.

 

[LEDBud]

Logging Companies are the destroyers of Nature what those 3 did was a ant fart compared to what logging companies do to th land.

I think a order to clean and restore the sites along with a thousand hours of Community hours would be a better punishment and use of time & money.


I do think they got off lucky with 2 and 4 year sentences , it could of been much worse.

 

[SWOGA]

I'm a fan of legalization, but +13K plants on public land, that's getting greedy. They should have been arrested to trespassing and tax evasion. That would land them in jail for a much longer sentence and justifiably so. Growing on public land is pretty ballsy. I know a bunch of folks do this but its really illegal, not so much the cannabis growing although that much is, but using public land for profit. Only oil companies and folks with deep pockets get to do that sort of thing.

And there lies the problem. No fines or jail time for Oil or timber companies, they create jobs. One set of laws for Corporations, another set of laws for common people.

 

[bobrown14]

And there lies the problem. No fines or jail time for Oil or timber companies, they create jobs. One set of laws for Corporations, another set of laws for common people.

At least the oil companies get a PERMIT to mess up the environment and use public lands and of course PAY for said permit. I think when you start wagging your finger in the face of law enforcement (13K plants), one would expect to receive a negative reaction. Common sense.
That negative reaction cost taxpayers money, tax payers want to see results from the money spent... more common sense. Probably more folks should have been rounded up.