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Sheriff’s deputies confiscated 610 pot plants in two busts at residences about 12 miles apart, authorities said Thursday.
The busts took place Wednesday afternoon in Piñon Hills and Oak Hills.
The sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team descended upon a home in the 8000 block of Daisy Hills in Oak Hills at about 12:20 p.m. to serve a search warrant, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Deputies found 317 plants, between two and three feet tall, growing outside and surrounded by a fence covered in black plastic, according to the statement.
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“The County of San Bernardino has an ordinance prohibiting outdoor marijuana cultivations that are not within a secured structure,” the statement said. “San Bernardino County Land Use / Code Enforcement personnel were at the scene and determined the cultivation was in violation of the County’s ordinance.”
Abraham Pacheco, 25, of Mexico was arrested at the home and booked into the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto on suspicion of growing marijuana. He’s been released on bail.
The Sheriff’s Department said he was hired to oversee the operation and tend to the plants.
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About four hours after the Oak Hills bust began, the sheriff’s marijuana team arrived at a home 12 miles to the west, in the 3300 block of Snow Line Drive in Oak Hills.
They reportedly found 293 plants growing in the yard in a similar setup. The two growing operations “don’t appear to be related,” said Adam Cervantes a sheriff’s spokesman.
The Oak Hills plants stood three to four feet tall, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Bulmaro Flores Arreola, 33, of Mexico was arrested at the Oak Hills home on suspicion of growing marijuana. The Sheriff’s Department said he, like Pacheco, was hired to manage the operation.
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Arreola was being held at Central Detention Center in San Bernardino on $25,000 bail, according to booking records. He’s scheduled to appear Monday in Victorville Superior Court.