Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Marijuana Grow on National Forest Land

Press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Eastern District of California: 

Dimas Ortiz, 26, of Michoacán, Mexico, was sentenced [yesterday] by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for growing marijuana on the National Forest and for depredation of Public Lands and Resources, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, Ortiz oversaw the marijuana growing operations of several other men in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest to the west of Weaverville, near Limedyke Mountain, at an elevation of approximately 2,500 feet. On Aug. 7, 2017, law enforcement officers executed a search of the grow and eradicated more than 2,500 marijuana plants. A camp site was found where the on-site workers had camped. Ortiz oversaw the operation from a distance. He helped finance the operation, provided the supplies for the grow site, and directed the activities of his co-defendants. Ortiz expected the operation to yield 800 pounds of processed marijuana, worth $500,000, of which he was to receive 25%. In 2016, Ortiz was the driver for the same grow site and he and others harvested approximately 800 pounds of processed marijuana.

The environmental damage to the forest was analyzed and documented by Integral Ecology Research Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to the research and conservation of wildlife and their ecosystems that has examined over 100 public land marijuana grow sites.

According to the report of the investigation filed with the court, at this grow site, a half-full 33.8‑oz. bottle of carbofuran was found hidden among the fertilizer bags and a bag containing an estimated 20 pounds of suspected powder carbofuran. Carbofuran is a toxic pesticide that is banned in the United States. A food bottle found at the site had been reused and contained a mixture of refried beans and carbofuran (suspected bait for animals). The environmental assessment concluded that the carbofuran and other pesticides and fertilizer at the grow site likely posed a significant direct risk to a number of endangered species, including the bald eagle, the northern spotted owl, and the coho salmon. Four cisterns were discovered with water diverted from mountain streams for use in the marijuana grow’s irrigation system with an estimated 4,500 feet of plastic irrigation lines for water and over 2,200 pounds of soluble fertilizer. The report estimates that the operation used over 15,000 gallons of water per day. Open campsite latrines were also found in proximity to waterways that would cause watershed contamination from the latrines’ fecal matter after the next substantial rain. About 1,000 pounds of trash and 500 pounds of plastic irrigation lines were hauled out of the site. Tests on samples of the marijuana plants determined that carbofuran was present in the plant material.

This case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service with the assistance of agents from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the North State Marijuana Investigation Team and deputies of the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney David W. Spencer prosecuted the case.

Sebastian Martinez Arreola, of Michoacán, Mexico, who had been in the grow site approximately 11 days at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to marijuana cultivation charges, and on Feb. 28, 2018, was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Carlos Gutierrez Gonzalez, 25, of Michoacán, Mexico, was sentenced to 50 months in prison. On Dec. 17, 2018, Armando Mayorga Garcia pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30.

Earlier Chapter: Two Mexican Nationals Apprehended During Large Marijuana Raid in Trinity County

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31 Comments
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ICU812
Guest
ICU812
4 years ago

It’s about time. Good work by the Feds, now keep it up.

Willie Caos-mayham
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  ICU812

🕯🌳But now we have to pay for there food and housing. And if they get work while they’re in there they’ll send it to Mexico to prepare for when they get released, so it’s a win, win situation for them.🛸👁⚖

Me
Guest
Me
4 years ago

Yeah ten years in prison is a total win win !!!

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
4 years ago
Reply to  Me

He should have gotten a tougher sentence. Now we have to support him.

Guest6
Guest
Guest6
4 years ago

Yeah please keep it up feds Humboldt county redwood company and Mendocino redwood company are (hack and squirt) spraying toxic pesticides called Imazapyl on their thousands of acres of clearcut forests. Mendocino even has laws against this practice yet these horrible corporations are free and clear to destroy while you spend millions on this bs. Interesting that you rarely hear about grows on forest land in Humboldt though I might add.

Marc
Guest
Marc
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest6

If you provided some evidence and didn’t post under an anonymous user name you might actually be taken seriously!

mike
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Marc

I know for a fact that hack and squirt is occurring in Mendocino.

Marc
Guest
Marc
4 years ago
Reply to  mike

Again, evidence! I am not saying it isn’t occurring, but I am not taking only your word as proof. Are you doing the spraying? Do you work for Mendocino Redwood? Video evidence, email trails made public, etc. Give me something other than your word.

researcher
Guest
researcher
4 years ago
Reply to  Marc

from MRC’s and HRC’s website. If you need proof try google.

Herbicides are a key tool in restoring the conifer balance and also in controlling invasive, exotic plant species. Accordingly, MRC uses herbicides more commonly to promote redwood and Douglas-fir while reducing the density of tanoak

local observer
Guest
local observer
4 years ago
Reply to  Marc

it is part of the THP. the THPs are public information. here is a 2019 image of a steep slope off Howard Creek just east of hyw 1. all of those dead trees are hardwoods that were sprayed with herbicide legally. 100’s of gallons of herbicide were used on this one slope. i am sure Howard Creek was impacted based on the proximity.

Legallettuce
Guest
Legallettuce
4 years ago
Reply to  Marc

It only costs around $200 to test. Someone get some samples and prove exactly where the samples came from and I will pay for the testing.

Lady
Guest
Lady
4 years ago

Too bad all these heroin and meth dealers don’t get 10 years for distributing

Many lives
Guest
Many lives
4 years ago
Reply to  Lady

Straight up.

Government Cheese
Guest
Government Cheese
4 years ago
Reply to  Lady

open the borders! They just want to work!

Legallettuce
Guest
Legallettuce
4 years ago

Oh hell no we have enough Canadians already.

Squeeler
Guest
Squeeler
4 years ago

I wonder where the feds are getting all this Carbofuran that they plantin every undocumented grow…

Guest6
Guest
Guest6
4 years ago
Reply to  Squeeler

Right! I’ve seen so many places destroyed by police during busts just to paint a terrible picture in the media.

Marc
Guest
Marc
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest6

Bullshit! See, I can post any accusation I want without proof too!

Michoacaaaaaan
Guest
Michoacaaaaaan
4 years ago

He helped finance the operation, provided the supplies for the grow site, and directed the activities of his co-defendants. Ortiz expected the operation to yield 800 pounds of processed marijuana, worth $500,000, of which he was to receive 25%.

In other words, he worked for a cartel in Mexico. He was not the mastermind.

Matthew Meyer
Guest
Matthew Meyer
4 years ago
Reply to  Michoacaaaaaan

What is the basis for assuming that the presence of Mexican ag workers means that a Mexican cartel runs the operation? Every ag operation in California uses Latino workers, so it doesn’t seem to tell us much.

fanofJesus
Guest
fanofJesus
4 years ago
Reply to  Matthew Meyer

as the above commenter said, if he was getting 25% for his oversight of the project, that means he was working for someone else, who may be considered the “owner” of the operation.

Katie
Guest
Katie
4 years ago

Wonderful! I hope it is the same person “overseeing” the nasty illegal grow bordering my land. I know it isn’t. Just wishful thinking on my part.

Trashman
Guest
Trashman
4 years ago

Leave some tortillas

researcher
Guest
researcher
4 years ago

Green Diamond is the worst of the bunch. From GD’s 2017 Forest Management Plan

“Herbicides are currently applied on Green Diamond lands by hand application methods. Aerial application has been used in the past; use of aerial application methods may occur in the future”

Namer
Guest
Namer
4 years ago

There must be lard in the beans.

hmm
Guest
hmm
4 years ago

I support this

J
Guest
J
4 years ago

Sounds like they got arrested and convicted for being from Mexico. All the rest is par for course in trinity county.

fanofJesus
Guest
fanofJesus
4 years ago
Reply to  J

I don’t think the problem was their being mexicans, but in their being illegal and doing illegal things-a double whammy

In my 1911 I trust
Guest
In my 1911 I trust
4 years ago
Reply to  J

I believe the issue was the fact they were growing on federal land, which means that they were prosecuted under federal law. Weed is a schedule 1 narcotic still and illegal as hell at the federal level, so yeah, they got in a bit more trouble.

2putttom
Guest
2putttom
4 years ago

Wonderful !

Buzz
Guest
Buzz
4 years ago

Mala suerte, Cabrón!

CDFW could do an even better job “protecting California’s natural resources” if they focused more on dismantling public land grows instead of the low-hanging fruit.