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San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Baxter stands on Lytle Creek Road, near the area where law enforcement agents exchanged gunfire this morning with camouflage-wearing men.

Two alleged accomplices in the shootout are sought. The three men, all wearing camouflage, fired on the lawmen as they approached a large field of marijuana plants they planned to uproot, officials say.

By Sara Lin and Jonathan Abrams, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
2:08 PM PDT, September 10, 2007

San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies shot and killed one camouflage-clad gunman during a shootout this morning with suspects protecting a marijuana crop in mountains north of Fontana, officials said.

Authorities said they are still searching for at least two other men involved in the shooting.
Deputies working with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection had planned to destroy a large marijuana field near Lytle Creek in the San Gabriel Mountains, an area north of Fontana marked by steep hills and manzanita trees, said sheriff's spokesperson Jodi Miller.

At least three people dressed in camouflage and armed with automatic weapons had been camping at the site and fired on the deputies as they approached the field about 8 a.m., Sgt. Rick Ells said.

The deputies returned fire and fatally wounded one gunman, who had climbed up a hill to seek a better shooting position, Ells said. He was taken to a forest ranger station, where he was pronounced dead, Miller said.

At least 40 deputies, aided by a helicopter, are searching for the other men. Authorities have requested four-wheel-drive vehicles as backup to navigate the area's steep terrain. California Highway Patrol officers have closed Lytle Creek Road to aid the search, officials said.

They estimate the field contained about 2,500 marijuana plants worth an estimated $6 million on the streets.

Fire information spokeswoman Pam Bierce said officials have discovered marijuana in the area before, but this is the first time that deputies had been fired on.

"Our guys realize the possibility of this happening, so they go in prepared," Bierce said.

The area is popular for camping and hiking and used as a getaway for residents.

"There are not many trails, so you have to make your own," said Michelle Walker, 27, who had been camping in the area with her fiance. "I can see how it's probably pretty easy to hide something like that."

Although officials have witnessed an uptick of indoor pot farms in residential areas, outdoor marijuana cultivation remains a problem.

The rugged and inaccessible terrain of the Inland Empire serves as prime harvesting ground -- and growers often use remote lands in national forests.

In the last five years, several crops in the San Bernardino National Forest foothills were destroyed by officials.

Last week, officials from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and the state Department of Justice's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement hiked about two miles off Highway 74 between Idyllwild and Hemet to remove 5,000 plants with an estimated street value of $15 million.

Riverside County officials this year have seized about 150,000 outdoor plants estimated to be worth $600 million, said sheriff's Investigator Jerry Franchville.

"Our numbers have already doubled," Franchville said.

San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies discovered almost 5,000 plants in September 2006 in the mountains near Highway 330. They arrested seven Mexican nationals -- two living among the plants.

The remote and hilly areas near Temecula also serve as a popular outdoor-growth area. Five thousand plants with a street value of about $4 million were seized eight years ago in terrain so rugged that the handlers accessed the area by helicopter.

sara.lin @ latimes.com

www.pe.com/localnews/s...15c6a.html

07:36 AM PDT on Wednesday, September 12, 2007

By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise

No SWAT teams were dropped into the San Bernardino National Forest on Tuesday, and two gunmen thought to have escaped a marijuana farm bust were not sighted.

But as activity around Monday's discovery of roughly 3,000 plants near Lytle Creek faded, officials warned that the scenario -- in which a camouflaged suspect opened fire to protect his lucrative crop -- is something both hikers and law enforcement should be increasingly prepared for.

"People should not underestimate the threat posed by marijuana," said Ron Brooks, president of the National Narcotics Officers' Associations' Coalition. "This is a multi-, multimillion-dollar endeavor."

So far this year, a total of 250,000 marijuana plants that were being grown outdoors have been seized by sheriff's investigators in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, a marked increase from the recent past.

The 150,000 of those plants found in Riverside County represent twice the number seized in there in 2006. In San Bernardino County, the discovery of 100,000 plants so far in 2007 is outdistancing last year's pace, when a single raid off Highway 38 seized more than 40,000 plants.

And while the bust southwest of Lytle Creek was the first in recent memory that turned violent, officials said it is a trend on the upswing.

Just last week, a rifle was recovered near where detectives seized 5,000 plants -- valued at $15 million -- in the San Jacinto Wilderness near Valle Vista.

Also cited was a shooting last year during a raid in Santa Clara County, and several pot farmers that were wounded or killed in Northern California in 2005.

"In the past, you'd get a few hundred plants valued in the thousands," said San Bernardino County sheriff's Lt. Greg Garland, commander of the narcotics bureau. "But when you're getting into the millions, they're more willing to be violent. They become more organized on their side of the house to protect their investment."

The violence attached to the outdoor pot farms comes as local eradication teams also are finding a wealth of large high-potency crops being grown under enhanced lighting inside suburban tract homes. In early May, raids at two different homes in family-friendly neighborhoods in Norco netted 1,700 pounds in cellophane-wrapped bales valued at $850,000, and 1,447 marijuana plants worth $8.5 million.

A month later, sheriff's deputies from San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties raided six homes and found a total of 4,416 plants valued at more than $15 million.

Garland said most of the June seizures were linked to Asian organized crime, but in the case of the outdoor crops, the operators are "almost exclusively" Mexican nationals.

In Monday's case, a multi-agency task force that included the U.S. Forest Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and deputies from both Inland counties was about to take down the outdoor pot farm when they spotted three men who had been living at the farm. Authorities valued the farm's crop at between $6 million and $9 million.

Before the task force officers could make arrests, officials said, one of the men fired at them from a nearby hill. They fired back, killing him, according to officials.

Two men armed with automatic weapons escaped into the steep, dry, brush-covered ravine and eluded a daylong manhunt. Further searches were canceled.

"The terrain is so rugged, and there's just so many areas they could have gone," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller, explaining the decision to halt the search.

Investigators still haven't identified the man killed. An attempt to match his fingerprints failed. The Mexican consulate will be asked to assist.

Meanwhile, local Forest Service commanders are left to deal with the aftermath. Gabe Garcia, district ranger for the portion of the San Bernardino National Forest where Monday's bust occurred, said the pot farmers often leave trash and poisonous fertilizers.

Hikers or campers must be aware of their surroundings whether on marked trails or not, Garcia said. Spotting a marijuana plant, or even a PVC pipe that seems out of place, should be a signal to immediately turn around, leave the way you came in and alert authorities.

"They usually pick areas that aren't obvious," Garcia said of pot farmers. "But I've seen them really close to where people are, which scares me."

As a student at Humboldt State in Northern California, Garcia heard about many pot farms that were guarded by armed men, he said.

He also mentioned a pot farm in Washington state where the cultivators recently were poisoning wildlife that otherwise might have eaten the plants.

"This is their bread and butter," Garcia said. "So it's a huge concern."

Staff writer Richard Brooks contributed to this report.

Reach Paul LaRocco at 909-806-3064 or plarocco @ PE.com