Three arrested after Forestville marijuana garden robbery

Three people pulled over with a carload of freshly cut marijuana Saturday were arrested on suspicion of robbing a Forestville-area pot farm, Sonoma County Sheriff’s officials said.

The investigation began about 3 p.m. when a 911 caller reported hearing a loud argument and seeing someone smashing the windows of an SUV with a crowbar at a property on the 5700 block of Highway 116 near Ross Station Road, Sgt. Spencer Crum said. A gray Chevrolet SUV, its windows broken, was seen speeding away from the property, heading south on Highway 116.

Law enforcement broadcast an alert for the vehicle and a CHP officer spotted the SUV and pulled it over on High School and Occidental roads.

The officer detained two men and a woman, all from Santa Rosa, and found about 10 marijuana plants in the SUV, Crum said. Their names weren’t immediately available.

Deputies suspect the people in the SUV were confronted as they were about to leave the property after cutting down the plants. The person who confronted them smashed the SUV’s windows and was later treated for minor lacerations, Crum said.

Saturday afternoon, Crum said deputies were still conducting interviews and reviewing evidence in the vehicle and at the property to determine more precisely what took place.

Detectives were also investigating the legality of the marijuana garden, he said.

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