FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
April 16, 2014	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 1:10-cr-00353 LJO

            FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that Lorenzo Segundo Gallegos, aka Misael Gallegos,  aka Joaquin Gallegos, aka Pablo Segundo, 26, of Michoacán, Mexico, was sentenced to 6  years and 7 months for conspiring to cultivate, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana. 

            His sentence follows his guilty plea last year to conspiring with others to cultivate approximately 6,867 marijuana plants on public land in the area of Bohna Creek in the Sequoia National Forest in Kern County.  In his plea agreement, Gallegos acknowledged that the marijuana cultivation operation resulted in significant environmental damage.  Law enforcement officers found malathion, urea fertilizer, batteries, several thousand feet of plastic irrigation lines, and trash at the grow site.  Oak trees and other vegetation were cut to allow sunlight to reach the plants.  Gallegos has also ordered to repay the government $3,825.10 for cleaning up the site.  

            Gallegos has been in custody since July 26, 2010, after having been ordered detained as a flight risk and danger to the community, and is subject to deportation upon completion of his prison sentence.
 The case was investigated by the U.S. Forest Service, Homeland Security Investigations of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Kern County Sheriff’s Office, Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, Kern County Probation Office, Bakersfield Police Department, Shafter Police Department, and Taft Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Karen Escobar prosecuted the case.

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