The Sierra Unified Major Marijuana Investigation Team (SUMMIT) meets before dawn on Monday for a briefing on the raid of a Shepherd Creek marijuana cultivation site. Three tactical teams flew into the canyon in the early morning hours, finding more than 100,000 plants and making two arrests. Photo by Mike Gervais

By Mike Gervais
Register Staff

Before dawn on Monday law enforcement officials from 12 different agencies gathered outside Independence for their briefing on what would turn out to be one of the largest drug busts in California history, uncovering more than 150,000 marijuana plants, two suspected cultivators and two dead bodies.

A three-month investigation into a marijuana growing operation culminated early this week as tactical teams flew via helicopter into the Shepherd Creek area, where a two-mile stretch of the creek south of Independence was infested with marijuana gardens fed by a sophisticated irrigation system that tapped into the creek.
The investigation also uncovered smaller growing operations near Little Lake, Hogback Creek and the Baxter Pass area. Earlier this year a marijuana garden was found in the Georges Creek area south of Independence as well. Whether or not the growing operations were linked, “we’re still putting that together, they had similarities, but we can’t say for certain yet,” said Inyo County Sheriff Bill Lutze.
Two arrests were made at Shepherd Creek. Eloy Chavez, 66, of Mexico, and his nephew, Manual Billa Chavez, 42, also of Mexico, were arraigned in Inyo County yesterday, and will most likely be turned over to federal custody next week.

A CAMPagent shorthauls from a helicopter on Monday. The agent flew, suspended, into Shepherd Canyon, where he picked up a suspect in the litter suspended beside him. The suspect was handed over to InyoCounty sheriff?s deputies. Photo by Mike Gervais

Three suspects, also illegal migrant workers from Mexico, were arrested last week during the Little Lake raid, and they have already been turned over to federal custody.
“In my years that I have been here, this is the largest drug operation that I have seen,” said Lutze, a 30-plus year veteran.
In total, the Sheriff’s Department destroyed approximately 108,500 plants from the Shepherd Creek site alone. More than 50,000 plants were found at additional sites.
In addition, the bodies of two men believed to be cultivators were found later during the raids in an area burned by the Inyo Complex Fire two weeks ago.
The Sierra Unified Major Marijuana Investigation Team (SUMMIT) consisted of agents from the Inyo Narcotic Enforcement Team, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (BNE CAMP), the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department, Bishop Police Department, Mono County Sheriff’s Department, Mammoth Lakes Police Department, California Highway Patrol, California Department of Fish and Game and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Federal agents stuff approximately 10 lbs. of marijuana from the Shepherd Creek marijuana garden into an evidence bag. Growers had planted approximately 100,000 plants fed by an irrigation system. Photo by Mike Gervais

The investigation into the marijuana gardens began three months ago when hikers in the Shepherd Creek area stumbled across a garden of 10-foot tall cannabis plants. The hikers immediately left the area and reported the GPS coordinates of the plants tolocal law enforcement.
Inyo County law enforcement officials contacted state and federal officials, and brought them on for the investigation. One of the first agencies to be brought on was the CAMP team, which contracts with the U.S. Army for personnel.
In addition to fly-overs of the site where the gardens were located, the CAMP team sent Army scouts into the Sierra, where they perched themselves on neighboring peaks and scouted the gardens, looking for suspects, their escape routes, landing zones for the eventual raid of the site and possible geographic hazards that could have cropped up during the raid.
Having uncovered a growing operation in the Georges Creek area earlier this year, Lutze said, the Sheriff’s Department wondered if the growers were not also utilizing water from other Inyo County creeks.
“We knew Georges Creek had a growing operation up there earlier this year, and we wanted to see if they moved back in,” Lutze said.
Their investigation uncovered significant, though smaller, gardens in Little Lake and the Hogback Creek areas. Lutze said that he also suspected gardens in the North and South Bear Creek areas.
Reconnaissance work done by SUMMIT had uncovered traces of a garden in the Hogback Creek area, and, “as a precaution” the team scouted both Bear creeks, and Little Lake, in order to be sure that, in one fell swoop, all marijuana gardens in the area would be eradicated.
Due to undisclosed circumstances, SUMMIT was forced to move on the Little Lake grow operation a week early. “It wasn’t a huge grow operation, but it wasn’t tiny,” Lutze said, noting that 7,000 plants were found at that grow site and three arrests were made. The suspects apprehended at the Little Lake site, Lutze said, were armed, however none of the suspects attempted to use their weapons.
None of the other suspects at the other growing sites were armed.
Over a two-day period, Monday and Tuesday of this week, SUMMIT, utilizing four helicopters, raided both sites with gardens, Hogback and Shepherd creeks, and determined that the other sites were clear.
Due to the large-scale nature of the raids, SUMMIT formed a base camp at the Manzanar Air Strip.
With the knowledge that the suspects in Little Lake were armed, the tactical teams approached the Shepherd Creek area aware that they could be landing in a hostile environment.
Luckily no shots were fired, and none of the suspects appeared to be armed.
At 7 a.m. on Monday, three tactical teams, consisting of officers from the Bishop Police Department, Inyo County Sheriff’s Department and state and federal law enforcement officials, lifted off from the air strip and flew up to the Shepherd Creek grow site.
The coordinated raid placed the tactical teams, armed with automatic weapons, at three locations within the two-mile stretch of the growing operation. One team landed at the top, or western side of the gardens, the second team in the middle, and the third at the southernmost part of the garden.
Also, local law enforcement officials were placed at all access roads and trails at the mouth of Shepherd Creek Canyon, in case any of the suspects at the site were able to evade capture at the site and make their way down the canyon to attempt a speedy get-away on U.S. 395. No such suspects were seen.
Officers were also placed at the mouths of other canyons with suspected grow sites, in case the suspects were able to contact other farmers and warn them of the raid. Again, no one came out of the canyons.
As the tactical teams were dropped off at their individual landing zones, the growers scattered, fleeing for their freedom.
The teams gave chase, and apprehended two suspects, both illegal migrant workers from Mexico.
The three tactical teams uncovered one main camp site at the western side of the gardens, where five to seven toothbrushes were uncovered, giving the teams an idea of how many suspects could be in the area.
In addition to the main camp site “several other camp sites were discovered along the gardens,” Lutze said.
As teams did their best to track remaining suspects, additional forces were flown to the gardens and began the lengthy process of eradicating the more than 100,000 marijuana plants.
CAMP team members, armed with machetes and garden sheers, were flown into the canyon, where they began cutting down the plants, which were then flown out of the canyon to Foothill Road to an awaiting a wood chipper. The plants were chipped and loaded into a county-owned dump truck, then driven off-site and buried in a 30-foot deep pit.
By the end of the day Monday, CAMP and local officials had cut down and destroyed more than 28,500 plants, less than half of the 100,000 plants at the site.
Day two of the raid took tactical teams up to the Hogback Creek area, where the teams learned that, for some reason – possibly a tip-off from escaped suspects from either the Little Lake or Shepherd Creek raids – growers had abandoned the operation.
Georges Creek, as well as both Bear creeks, were clean of any marijuana gardens.
In the Hogback Creek area, teams discovered and eradicated approximately 1,500 marijuana plants. According to Lutze, “there were upwards of 10,000 plants at that site at one time. It appears it had been abandoned for about a week, or a week and a half.”
As teams began eradicating the plants at Hogback Creek, and continued working to destroy all the plants in Shepherd Creek, they flew over the remaining creeks and locations of possible grow sites. During that reconnaissance, it was discovered that a marijuana-growing operation had been destroyed in the Baxter Pass area during the lightning-started fires in the Independence area two weeks ago.
It appears, though it is not confirmed, that discovered in Baxter Pass bodies were those of cultivators at another growing operation. The remnants of an irrigation system suggests that there were approximately 15,000 plants at that site before the fires claimed marijuana and the lives of the two individuals who were found Tuesday.
As federal and state law enforcement officials are cracking down on marijuana growing operations throughout the state, growers are looking for more remote locations to produce the drug.
Like the sites raided earlier this week, many large-scale grow operations have guards and farmers that live with the plants. Hikers and recreators that may come in contact with any growing operation on public lands are advised to leave the area as quickly as possible, and never, under any circumstances, get into a confrontation situation with the farmers or guards at the site. If possible, Lutze said, get a location for the site, and report it as soon as possible to local law enforcement.
Hikers should never enter a marijuana garden, as they have been known to be booby-trapped.
Large-scale marijuana cultivation projects, like the ones uncovered this week, have proven to be a hazard on public lands. Not only does it put recreators in danger, should they inadvertently find the fields, but the irrigation systems installed to water the gardens damage the land. Plus, when the growers leave the sites, they leave everything behind, such as piping and tubing used to tap into creeks and water the plants.
Obviously, eradicating illegal grow operations from public lands is a top priority.
Luckily for SUMMIT, the raids went well.
“It was an excellent operation,” said Lutze. “The lead agent for CAMP said he has worked with several counties and agencies, and said this was the best cooperative effort he had seen.
“Kudos to my staff and (INET Commander) Jeff Hollowell for working on this operation and for the three months of investigation” which led to the raid.
“It was a good day,” Lutze said Monday.