Friday, September 4, 2009

Two Arrested in Marijuana Grow Crackdown - KIVITV.COM | Boise. News, Breaking News, Weather and Sports-

Two Arrested in Marijuana Grow Crackdown - KIVITV.COM Boise. News, Breaking News, Weather and Sports-

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Three men have been charged in connection with a series of big marijuana grows uncovered by police in both Idaho and Oregon.

Javier Silva-Rangel, Froilan Rubio-Gomez and Horacia Deavila-Cabrera have been charged with Conspiracy to Manufacture and Distribute 1,000 or more Marijuana Plants.

Rubio-Gomez and Deavila-Cabrera are now in federal custody. Silva-Rangel remains at large.

According to the Federal court documents obtained by Today's Channel 6 News, the arrests culminate a three-month investigation which involved search warrants being issued on three Canyon County homes. The homes are at 505 Constitution Way and 1712 Juniper Street in Nampa and 2707 Bristol Avenue in Caldwell. Officials raided the homes last week.

Police say they were conducting surveillance on a "number of subjects who are engaged in manufacturing marijuana on public land."

Court documents say, beginning about April of this year, detectives began contacting local sprinkler and irrigation supply companies in both Ada and Canyon County, after men were seen purchasing large quantities of plastic pipe, hand-operated values and water emitters. The men made all the purchases with cash. Similar vehicles were used.

The same day the homes were raided, authorities in Owyhee County seized about 4,000 marijuana plants in a remote region near South Mountain.

Also last week, authorities in Harney County, Oregon, discovered some 6,000 marijuana plants being illegally grown near the Alexander Mine drop off point. Police say they used GPS tracking devices to determine that the vehicles used to purchase the irrigation supplies were also seen in the vicinity of the marijuana grow. The GPS also showed the vehicles made stops at the Nampa and Caldwell houses that police later raided.

Recently, grow operations were discovered in Boise, Valley and Owyhee Counties. Authorities determined the street value of the drugs were into the millions of dollars. The operations were found on BLM and Forest Service land.

Although the suspects have only been linked to the marijuana grows in Owyhee and Harney Counties, authorities say more arrests could be announced later this week.