Almost 1,000 marijuana plants seized in North County pot busts

By Debbi Baker, Union-Tribune Staff Writer
12:32 p.m. June 17, 2009

FALLBROOK β€” Almost 1,000 marijuana plants were confiscated after sheriff's deputies discovered two separate pot-growing operations in different areas of North County, sheriff's officials said Wednesday.

Three young men and 324 pot plants were found Tuesday in a greenhouse at a property on Calle Roxanne Road off De Luz Road, sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust said. On Wednesday morning, deputies responding to an anonymous call confiscated about 600 plants that were found in a remote area off De Luz Road near the Riverside County line. No arrests were made, Brust said.

Deputies discovered the first pot-growing scheme after authorities were tipped off about suspicious activity on the property, Brust said.

They surveilled the area from the air and saw what looked like a greenhouse on an unfenced and undeveloped parcel of the several-acre property with several people around it, Brust said.Deputies later surrounded the building, which had both water and power running to it, and found the marijuana plants, which were in various stages of growth.

β€œIt appears they planned on being there for a while based on the construction of the greenhouse and the sophistication of the grow,β€