Two Arrested At Pot Grow

DAYTON - Two men were arrested on Sept. 4 for growing marijuana and il- legally possessing firearms in a forested area east of Dayton.

The two Hispanic men, 41-year-old Gerardo Aguirre-Hernandez and 61-year-old Ramon Es- trada-Gonzalez , were ar- raigned Sept. 6 and will next appear in the Colum- bia County Courthouse on Sept. 20.

Both men were charged with one count of manufacturing a controlled sub- stance, a class C felony, and one count of being an alien in possession of a firearm, also a class C felony.

The Washington State Patrol eradication team made the arrests Sept. 4 up in the Cougar Canyon Road area, according to Columbia County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Dian McClurg.

According to the proba- ble cause documents on the case, the Cannabis Eradication and Reclamation Team (CERT), a branch of the Washington State Patrol, had previously received in- formation about a possible marijuana growing op- eration on Cougar Canyon Road. The team broke into two groups and searched the area in question where they found a water line typically associated with outdoor marijuana growing operations.

The teams continued to search and found the two men suspected of running the operation and arrested them at approximately 11:30 a.m.

An officer with the team translated for the men, ex- plaining that the men said they had been approached in San Jose, Calif., and asked if they wanted to work in an orchard. The men said they agreed and were transported to Wash- ington where they were dropped off and told they were growing marijuana instead of working in an orchard, according to the translating officer.

The men received food by a drop off every Tues- day and their only means of communication was a cell phone that Aguirre- Hernandez was in pos- session of.

According to the probable cause documents, Aguirre-Hernandez and Estrada-Gonzalez said they had been camping out in the area for approximately three months. The men said they were paid $100 a day to work on the grow opera- tion. Aguirre-Hernandez said there were about 1,000 plants the pair tended to. The search team located a rifle at the camp, which the men said they had been giv- en by the people who drop off food once a week to help defend against bears, according to the documents.

Aguirre-Hernandez said he had picked the gun up once when he thought he heard a bear. Both men admitted to the team members that they had not legally immigrated into the United States.

The Columbia County Sheriff's Office was not in- volved in the bust, but it did book and relocate the men to Walla Walla because the Columbia County Jail is full, McClurg said.

Both men are being held on $200,000 bail and their case is being handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The last marijuana grow operation in Columbia County was discovered in the sum- mer of 2011 when two Mexi- can nationals were arrested in the Cold Creek area. The men were also in possession of weapons.

Walla Walla County Sher- iff's Office Undersheriff Ed- die Freyer said grow opera- tions are dangerous for law enforcement and the public, especially if operators are armed up in national forest area.

"We've had some very deadly interactions between public and these people," Freyer said. "Innocent people can be killed by growers."

To combat these opera- tions, enforcement groups like the Cannabis Eradica- tion and Reclamation Team targets known past locations and likely places for grows, Freyer said.

Specially trained teams of pilots and spotters look for certain characteristics on the ground to attempt to identify a grow and in- vestigate suspicious areas more thoroughly to verify a grow is there. Ultimately, Freyer said, the target is not only to eradicate the grow, but to also catch the people involved.