FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
February 13, 2012	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 1:11-cr-358-AWI

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Ivan Carrillo, 29, of Lamont, in Kern County, pleaded guilty today to facilitating a large marijuana cultivation operation on public land through the use of his telephone.

According to court documents and Carrillo’s guilty plea, a California Fish and Game warden found Carrillo last October about two miles from a marijuana cultivation site in the Sentinel Peak area of the Sequoia National Forest. Carrillo had been assisting in the grow operation that had been disrupted the day before by federal, state and local law enforcement officers. As a result of the enforcement action at the Sentinel Peak grow site, law enforcement agents found over 16,205 marijuana plants, over 850 pounds of processed marijuana, and three firearms, including an assault rifle. Native vegetation was cut to make room for the marijuana plants. Trash and fertilizer containers were scattered throughout the site, including in a flowing stream. Carrillo has agreed to pay $3,686.54 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for the cleanup cost and for the natural resources damaged by the illicit cultivation operation.

This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bureau of Land Management, the Southern Tri-County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), the California Department of Justice Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), the California Department of Fish and Game, and the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Karen Escobar is prosecuting the case.

Carrillo was previously ordered detained as a flight risk and is scheduled for sentencing on April 23, 2012, before Chief U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii. He faces a maximum prison term of four years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

Eight other defendants are charged in this case. The charges against them are only allegations and they are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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