OFFICERS FOUND PLENTY OF GARDENING AND CAMPING EQUIPMENT IN THE GARDEN COMPLEX BUSTED LAST WEEK. A traffic stop on May 6 yielded Mariposa County Sheriff’s Deputies three arrests and the necessary items for the cultivation of marijuana, and for protecting the precious crop. That stop may have led investigators to a garden complex on Bureau of Land Management ground the following day.

In addition to the camping equipment, irrigation line and fertilizer, deputies found a 9mm handgun and a .22 caliber revolver. The three men in the truck said they had been paid $500 to drop the items off in the Greeley Hill area.

In the bed of the truck were a tent, water pump, propane tanks and a stove, buckets of food, batteries, camoflauge clothing, potting soil and a black sock full of marijuana seeds. The guns were rolled into sleeping bags. One of the men was also armed with a knife.

All three men were booked into the Mariposa County Jail. They face charges of conspiracy and cultivation of marijuana, possession of a concealed dirk or dagger and giving a false name to a peace officer.

On May 7, Mariposa County Sheriff’s Deputies joined forces with the Mariposa County Probation Department, US Forest Service and BLM officials to eradicate two illegal marijuana gardens in the Greeley Hill area. Although both gardens had campsites, no suspects were apprehended during the effort.

One of the gardens was found to be covering a hillside and dry drainage with a large, hand-dug area supplying water to the crop. The water holding area was about 25 feet long, ten feet wide and four feet deep.

In all, officers eradicated 19,323 live marijuana plants. That brings this season’s total to 35,712. Last year was a record year for the sheriff’s office’s eradication efforts, but if these early totals are an indication of things to come, 2010 may easily pass those levels, according to Undersheriff Doug Binnewies.