PRESS CONFERENCE—Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Marinette County Jerry Sauve address the media Monday, July 23 on last week’s marijuana growing operation in Middle Inlet and Athelstane. Top Photo: Marinette County and DNR crews gather “pot” plants to be trucked to a landfill for disposal.

13,222 Pot Plants Seized, Street Value Is $13 Million

Raids on marijuana growing operations in the towns of Middle Inlet and Athelstane last week netted law enforcement one of the largest seizures ever in the State of Wisconsin. Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve said it was by far the largest he has seen in his 28 years with the department.

The 13,222 plants confiscated and destroyed during the raids on Monday, July 16 had an estimated street value in excess of $13 million.

Five individuals, all related, are in custody, facing federal charges related to the grow operations. Two of the suspects were arrested during the raid in Athelstane, and two other men, who remain at large, fled after being spotted in the Middle Inlet field.

At a news conference held Monday afternoon, July 23, at the Marinette County Sheriff Office, Sauve, Wisconsin Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen and David L. Spakowicz, of the Wisconsin Department of Justice - Division of Criminal Justice, brought to light new details of the raid and seizure.

According to Sauve, this was a multiple-agency effort. He thanked his staff in the Sheriff’s Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Wisconsin Department of Justice -Division of Criminal Investigation, the Brown County Drug Task Force, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Marinette County Highway Department, and law enforcement representatives from several different jurisdictions that took part in the raid.

Van Hollen said that the 13,222 plants seized “is a significant grow and that is a huge number of plants.” He went on to say that getting marijuana off the streets in such a large quantity is important in the war against drugs.

The raids took place on Monday, July 16 on two private parcels of land, a 40 acre site in the Town of Middle Inlet and a 22 acre site in the Town of Athelstane. The plants growing on the Middle Inlet property were reported in May by a fisherman who was fishing a stream that runs through the land. He had noticed trees cut down and “No Fishing” signs posted. A similar report about the Athelstane site was received from a logger.

Following the reports, Sauve received assistance from every entity he contacted and surveillance began on both locations. “As you can imagine, something like this can make a sheriff or police chief really nervous,” Sauve said. “You don’t want something to go wrong. You don’t want something to screw it up because there’s a lot on the line here.”

Van Hollen added that timing is delicate in this type of surveillance because law enforcement wants to collect as much information as it can in order to get a stronger case before bringing down the hammer. Law enforcement has to make the raid before the marijuana is harvested. This was especially the case here since these plants were at the stage of being very mature.

Sauve said he does not believe the two men who fled from the Middle Inlet field off County X are armed or dangerous, but declared, “It’s an ongoing investigation. We are working to positively identify them and obtain arrest warrants for them.”

In addition to the two men arrested in Athelstane, three other individuals were arrested in Brown County.

The five persons currently facing charges in connection with the case are Javier Magana, 51; his wife, Maria Magana-Mendoza, no age listed, and their son, Brian Magana, 19, all reporting their address as 1264 Doty Street, Green Bay, and Javier’s brother, Marco Magana, 38, and Manuel Mendoza, 45, both of 1701 Deckner Ave., Green Bay. All five listed Green Bay as their address, but according to Spakowicz, their citizenship has not yet been definitely determined.

All five are currently charged in U.S. District Court in Green Bay with knowingly and intentionally conspiring to manufacture and possess with the intent to deliver marijuana. They face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a maximum of life, and up to $10 million in fines.

Van Hollen explained that getting the Drug Enforcement Administration involved enables federal charges to be filed, which come with stiffer penalties.

According to Sauve, they purchased three parcels of land in January of this year located on County X in Middle Inlet and South Hill Road in Athelstane. Each parcel also contains a small cabin. In the process of the raid, four vehicles, a trailer, several pieces of equipment, and two homes in Brown County were seized. Federal law allows this forfeiture and seizure, which upon conviction, allows the assets to be sold to fund further drug enforcement work.

Two hunting rifles were also seized in one of the cabins, but Sauve reiterated that they were not automatic or semi-automatic assault type weapons.

Van Hollen, who grew up near Bayfield, said he was certain there are more pot growing operations in the northwoods, but he added that one of his greatest concerns is “for hunters and other woods people, hikers, skiers who may encounter a marijuana growing operation. They are usually monitored by, guarded by, or tended to by people who are heavily armed. Many times they are not United States citizens. They have a country to flee home to and they have nothing to lose because they’re about to lose a huge cash crop. They have opportunity, they have means and sometimes they have a real reason to use deadly force.”

Nonetheless, Van Hollen urges that citizens be vigilant and report anything that looks suspicious to law enforcement. The safety of the northwoods depends on it.

Van Hollen believes that technological advances on the part of law enforcement have definitely helped with recent large-scale seizures and that the public is getting better in terms of awareness. Referencing last summer’s raid in Sawyer County which netted about 9,000 plants and six arrests with prosecutions, Van Hollen stated, “In our last two trips we’ve been able to arrest the majority of the suspects.”

Once the Middle Inlet and Athelstane sites were secured, Sauve called in the forces to eradicate the 13,000 plants. He especially praised the work of Department of Natural Resources people and their ATVs which were used to haul the plants, roots and all, to collection sites. He also mentioned Highway Department trucks and drivers used to haul away the plants. He added, “That speaks volumes about what people are willing to do for the right cause.”

According to Spakowicz, the low-ball value on the eradicated plants is about $1000 a pound, roughly a pound per plant. That would total about $13 million of drugs being kept off the streets. The majority of plants were hauled to an area landfill and safely buried in a particularly nasty portion of the complex. The site has been also been securely covered with several feet of dirt and other compostables.

As evidence for trial, the Sheriff’s Department retained about 1000 plants, complete with root balls, from each site. The media was transported to a secure evidence location to view the drying plants and other equipment seized in the raid.

Van Hollen concluded, “This was really, truly an example of law enforcement agencies at all levels working together for the greater good without any recognition of turf. That’s something that I can tell you, rest assured, does not happen in every jurisdiction in this country. But it certainly happens in Wisconsin, and it’s happened a lot more recently.”

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