United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner
Eastern District of California
Lamont Man Sentenced For Growing Marijuana On Public Land
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | CONTACT: Lauren Horwood |
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April 9, 2012 |
PHONE: (916) 554-2706 |
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www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae |
usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov |
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Docket #: 1:11-cr-358 AWI |
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FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Ivan Carrillo, 29, of Lamont, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii to four years in prison for using a telephone to facilitate a large marijuana growing operation on public land. In addition, Antonio Morales, 20, also of Lamont, entered a guilty plea in connection with the same case to conspiring to manufacture, to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute marijuana.
Carrillo’s sentence follows his guilty plea earlier this year. According to court documents, a California Fish and Game warden found Carrillo and Morales last October about two miles from a marijuana grow site in the Sentinel Peak area of the Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County. They had been assisting in the grow operation that had been disrupted the day before by law enforcement officers. At the Sentinel Peak grow site, law enforcement agents found more than 16,205 marijuana plants, more than 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 and Morales have agreed to pay $3,686 to the U.S. Forest Service for the cost up cleaning up the land.
The case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Bureau of Land Management, Southern Tri-County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), California Department of Justice Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), California Department of Fish and Game, and Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Karen Escobar is prosecuting the case.
Morales, who has been detained as a flight risk and danger to the community, is scheduled for sentencing on June 25, 2012, before Judge Ishii. He faces a minimum prison term of 10 years and a maximum prison term of life, and a $10 million fine.
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