August 11, 2005

Deadly pot raid

One officer wounded, one suspect dead, one suspect still at large

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

A large-scale marijuana find, an ambush, one officer down, one suspect dead, and another on the loose—all before most nearby Almaden residents had poured their first cup of coffee.

Recovery efforts were staged on the lawns of Los Gatos Christian Church. Photo by Kymberli Brady.

Last Friday, State Department of fish and Game Warden Kyle Kroll of Mountain View was airlifted to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center after bullets tore through both his legs during an early morning gunfight that claimed the life of one suspect and led nearly 40 SWAT team officers on a manhunt through the 17,000-acre open-space reserve surrounding Mt. Umunhum.

“He had two leg wounds,” said Dr. Jose Guzman, an anesthesiologist and one of six volunteer members in the CAMP [Campaign Against Marijuana Planting] Program, a specialized task force team who train with the California Highway Patrol and specialize in marijuana eradication. “He had one in each leg, both through and through. The fact that he was conscious and lucid tells me there wasn’t a lot of blood.”

According to the Santa Clara County Sheriff Department, staff members for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (who owns most of the land) first tipped them off to the location of the pot farm. Kroll, 25 had arrived around 5 a.m. to secure the field for eradication when he was ambushed in a sudden hail of gunfire around 7 a.m. by two men believed to be guarding the illegal harvest. He later underwent surgery for his injuries and is expected to be discharged from the hospital sometime this week.

According to Deputy Terrance Helm, Public Information Officer for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office, authorities found 20,600 marijuana plants spread across nearly three acres of rough terrain on the eastern slope of the mountain. Just weeks away from harvesting, the 4-5 foot plants carried a street value of nearly $20-30 million if fully matured and harvested.

Helm maintains that any statements indicating that Mexican drug cartels were involved came directly from the CAMP organization. Although it appears that the size of this operation does bear the signature of a Mexican drug cartel, without proof, Helm prefers not to rush to judgement, as drug dealers “come in all shapes and sizes.”

“The area is treacherous,” added Helm. “It’s a one-hour hike on foot. At times, deputies and law enforcement officials had to low-crawl to get to the area. Illegal pot rows are purposely placed in areas where it’s not easy to access.”

“The growers are actually living inside the gardens for two to three months,” added Lt. Steve McCarney. Then they cultivate the plants and remove them, at which time they’re sold.”

On Monday, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office identified the deceased suspect as Armando Quintana Aguilar, 33 of East Palo Alto. A second suspect, described only as a Hispanic adult male, remains at large. Although they have formally called off the manhunt, Helm says they are still looking at evidence collected and following a number of leads, but could not discuss the details of the ongoing investigation.

For Almaden’s Wanda Hillsbury, who hikes the familiar hillside with her friend Paula Lines, it was none-the-less another normal early morning hike, until she got home.

Officials discuss recovery efforts at the staging area on the lawns of Los Gatos Christian Church. Photo by Kymberli Brady.

“My friend called and told me about it,” she said. “We were up on that loop that starts by Castillero and goes around. I was shocked because I didn’t hear anything until later, when the helicopters arrived.”

By her own admission, when asked if Friday’s bust will change her morning routine, Hillsbury simply said, “nah.”
With two young children, the raid, the gunfight, and the one who got away are constantly in the back of Carrie Smith’s mind these days, as it happened so close to her home near Guadalupe Mines Road that every time she and her family hear a noise in their backyard, they get a little nervous.

“You just get caught up in the moment of what’s happening around you,” she said.” The suspect is in the back of my mind all the time and it upsets the balance in our lives to have something thrown in, that nobody expected. That’ s where the unrest comes from.”

While her daughter is too young to understand, she has tried to explain what happened to her eight-year-old son.
“He initially thought it was neat to see all the helicopters,” she said. “But now he asks whether they were good drugs or bad drugs and he wonders about the other suspect that got away.”

SWAT team officers return from a morning shift in the dense brush looked more like they were returning home from a war zone. Photo by Kymberli Brady.

Deputy Helm further encourages anyone who witnessed anything suspicious or has information regarding the incident [case #: 05-217-0072B] to contact Detective Sgt. Pedro Contreras at (408) 808-4516 or call (408) 808-4431 if they wish to remain anonymous.

Cost and convenience enticing to drug dealers in the U.S
The problem with the drug trade in the U.S. according to Deputy Helm, lies largely with the bottom line. Unlike nearly every other import, drugs such as marijuana and methamphetamine are much cheaper to produce in the states than in Mexico.

“First you have banditos and bad cops,” he says. “So you have to hire guards to protect your investment, then you hire gardeners to produce it and haulers to take it across the border. These guys all get paid up front. If it gets taken at the border, you’ve lost a lot of capital. Do it here and all you’ll pay for is the gardener. You don’t need a security force and there’s no hauling, so there’s very little invested up front.”

Dr. Jose Guzman is part of a six-member grant-funded task force of volunteer specialists trained to eradicate marijuana and enter into areas where paramedics couldn’t.

Meth labs have also evolved over the years, due in large part to the popularity of the drug, coupled with the availability and cost of components, making it a profitable, albeit a dangerous venture.

Areas near the south Almaden and Los Gatos borders were at one time well known for meth labs and related explosions when a batch went bad. Helm declined to elaborate on the current climate in those areas, but says they’re much more mobile these days.

“We patrol back there,” he says. “It’s not uncommon to find abandoned chemicals on the side of the road. A lot of these labs are now in cars—we call them rolling labs. When we discover one, we contact County Hazmat to render the chemicals safe and with no contamination, and then turn it over to the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement [BNE].”

Helm adds that the problem is not likely to go away soon, especially when all the ingredients can be purchased readily at stores like Orchard Supply Hardware and Home Depot.

“It’s been a low cost venture for years and they’re still continuing to make it, so it’s not going to go away. But while they might be evolving, we’re evolving just as well in catching them.”