Three pot gardens busted in one raid

It was paydirt for the Tehama County Sheriff's Office when it made a pot garden bust in Paynes Creek on Thursday.

Deputies, agents, and wardens from the sheriff's office, Bureau of Land Management and Department of Fish and Game went into the Tehama Wildlife Area on Oat Creek expecting to raid one illegal marijuana garden and instead located three cultivation sites, said the sheriff's office.

During the raid agents arrested two men suspected to be growers of the three sites.

Regino Bautista Gonzalez, 20, and Miguel Mejia Ayala, 43, both of unknown residence, where taken into custody without incident, said the sheriff's office.

Law enforcement confiscated 4,306 marijuana plants and four pounds of processed pot.

"This was a good bust," said Sheriff's Detective Dave Hencratt.

Both suspects were booked into the Tehama County Jail on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana and possession for sale of marijuana and held in lieu of $50,000 bail each.

This is the seventh illegal marijuana garden raid of the 2009 growing season conducted by the Tehama County Sheriff's Office during which 17,209 plants have been pulled and destroyed, eleven arrests made and four firearms confiscated, according to Sheriff Clay Parker.

Hencratt said the sheriff's office will be conducting illegal marijuana garden raids in the county, U.S. Forest and BLM lands on a weekly basis over the next few months.

"We know of more gardens than we can get to," Hencratt said.

The sheriff's office has an cooperative agreement with the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM to conduct and assist in marijuana garden raids throughout the county.