Lake County deputies destroy 17,536 marijuana plants

A Bakersfield man was jailed in Lake County on suspicion of tending a large clandestine marijuana garden on federal lands near the Indian Valley Reservoir, Lake County Sheriff’s officials said Monday.

Officers destroyed 17,536 marijuana plants found in two gardens Thursday when a team of local and federal law enforcement officers visited the remote, rugged area about 25 miles northeast of Clearlake, Lt. Steve Brooks said.

They had spotted the marijuana gardens on land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management during a reconnaissance flight in April. Detectives followed up the sighting with surveillance operations over a period of months before Thursday’s raid.

The officers encountered two men at the site. One escaped through the brush, but a police dog helped officers apprehend a man later identified as 32-year-old Alvar Sandis Alvarez, Brooks said.

The gardens had a gravity-fed irrigation systems, one tapping into a creek and the other tapping into a natural spring, Brooks said. Deputies found one campsite set up for two occupants, he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.