Navarro

Growers apparently tapped water supply of Mission Viejo gated community.

MISSION VIEJO – Authorities are calling it the largest pot bust in Orange County history.

Somehow, 18,000-20,000 marijuana plants grew undiscovered in the shadow of multimillion-dollar homes in the Stoneridge Estates, a gated community that borders O'Neill Regional Park.

Authorities discovered the pot farm Monday during a routine helicopter flyover and began ripping out the plants on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The growers had tapped into the homeowners association main water line, running an extensive irrigation system throughout the canyon to water the plants.

Orange County sheriff's deputies found plants in seven to eight parcels, some as large as half a football field.

"This could be part of a larger cartel based on the sophistication of the irrigation system," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said. "This is not a Mickey Mouse operation."

The pot find follows a Sept. 9 discovery of a 3,800-plant marijuana farm hidden six miles in from Silverado Canyon Road in Cleveland National Forest. Authorities aren't sure if the two busts are connected.

Deputies believe there may be additional groves undiscovered on the ridge that they will deal with today, Amormino said.

Originally, authorities estimated they spotted about 200-400 plants from the air but have since chopped down nearly 10 times that amount, said Amormino.

Authorities estimate the plants are worth around $12.5 million. They were growing on a slope directly below the Stoneridge Estates where Sunrise Court dead-ends and becomes steep wilderness parkland.

Officers arrived Tuesday afternoon, cut down and airlifted 3,500 plants before the sun set. They returned Wednesday morning and started traversing the area looking for additional groves. Throughout the afternoon, the totals kept rising as more plants – some as tall as 20 feet high – were discovered.

Neighbors were stunned.

"I was shocked that it could be behind my backyard," said Jennifer Peel, 39, who lives two houses away from the cul-de-sac where the plants were found. "It's amazing that you could grow it to those lengths and no one would notice."

Deputies found cots and two .22 caliber rifles in an area where they believe the growers harvested and cleaned the marijuana. Though no arrests have been made, authorities say they are confident the physical evidence they've found will yield some results.

"We'll be making arrests in the next week," Orange County Sheriff Mike Corona announced at a news conference Wednesday.

As night approached Wednesday, narcotics officers continued airlifting bundles of plants to the top of the ridge. Grabbing them by the armful, deputies shoved the plants into brown bags to be weighed and cataloged at a makeshift command post set up at the dead end on Sunshine Court while residents looked on.

Lisa Mulato, 43, has lived at Stoneridge for a year and has three children ages 10-14. Though neighbors had agreed not to go down into the cul-de-sac because of snakes, mountain lions and steep terrain, she said her children have gone down into the canyon before. Her 13-year-old son, Bobby, told her he and his friends had recently seen some "weird things" around where the pot was found.

"We thought it was landscaping guys," Mulato said. "Little did we know they were tapping into our water supply and growing pot."

Peel, who lives in Stoneridge with her five children, said she didn't realize what was happening and thought there might be a mountain lion spotting or someone missing.

"It's sad and unsettling because we're now realizing how big this is," Simone Chapman, 39, a six-year resident, who has three children, said. "Now my kids are asking questions like, 'How do you smoke it?' "







O.C. Marijuana Raids
Here are few of the larger ones in Orange County

September 2006: 3,800 plants hidden in a ravine in Black Star Canyon about six miles from Silverado Canyon Road
August 2006: 1,000 plants about 15 miles from Ortega (74) Highway
August 2005: 2,000 plants near Santiago Canyon Road
September 2003: 2,200 marijuana plants off the Ortega (74) Highway in the Cleveland National Forest
August 2001: 2,000 plants at a mountaintop farm irrigated from a creek in the Cleveland National Forest
May 1998: 1,500 plants from an industrial park in Orange
August 1994: More than 2,000 plants on the Riverside County line in the Cleveland National Forest
September 1993: More than 3,000 plants in the Cleveland National Forest
December 1980: 2,000 plants in hilly Lake Forest area

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MWPC#10
MW80's crew #13

MOIISKA

I think people that grow drug plants like that should be executed publicaly.

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TerryTuffguy

I half tempted to fly out to cali for the burning of those pants

ExpresKeep

Or be forced to smoke all of it themselves

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lhsstanger

they were grown out doors mang......probably some poopoo ganj

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MWCBC# 00BearsBandwagonBusDriver

lhsstanger

depending on the person....you might get no complaints there

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MWCBC# 00BearsBandwagonBusDriver

TerryTuffguy

Youre prolly right, but that's a lot of plants to burn. I just wanna stand down wind.

SmknSmly

I would love one of the 20 footers to have as a Christmas tree


And then have one hell of a new year

lhsstanger

ya....would be awesome to stand in a cloud of ganj smoke.....walk out of the cloud like the T1000 and start freezering up cause ur so high that you fall down

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MWCBC# 00BearsBandwagonBusDriver

pb24dagrk

heh, i know exactly where that is

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'04 z06

Chapman

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03 RedFire Cobra
Driver Mod

rez

i live 10min from there.

on the map take Oso Pkwy all the way left till u get to aliso creek road

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Sabu

why??? i guess that would be the only reason how someone could die from smoking weed

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Navarro

Last paragraph:

"It's sad and unsettling because we're now realizing how big this is," Simone Chapman, 39, a six-year resident, who has three children, said. "Now my kids are asking questions like, 'How do you smoke it?' "

In a few years they'll find out

__________________
MWPC#10
MW80's crew #13

95TbirdSC