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By Todd Richmond, Associated Press Writer
      


Green Bay, Wis. (AP) - Northern Wisconsin's Chequamegon-Nicolet
National Forest is a vast, verdant getaway for hundreds of
thousands of campers, hikers and anglers every year. But hidden
within was a marijuana megafarm.
      

Investigators say a band of men turned the forest's
southeastern tip into a giant pot farm, growing thousands of plants
on remote plots, moving supplies along forgotten logging roads and
buying supplies and ammunition at local stores.
      


Nobody in law enforcement has said it publicly, but the style
matches that of Mexican cartels that have been using public land in
the United States to grow vast amounts of marijuana and avoid the
risk and expense of smuggling the drugs across the border.


      "There certainly is an element to this that leads one to
believe there is a Hispanic connection here," Wisconsin Attorney
General J.B. Van Hollen said. He declined to elaborate.


      According to court documents, investigators discovered nine
plots of plants in the southeastern tip of the Nicolet section
after a person noticed two men preparing a grow site in
the forest.


      Federal, state and local police spent June and July tailing
suspected growers, following pickup trucks down abandoned logging
roads and watching men appear in the trees and toss nylon
sacks resembling grain feed bags into the beds.


      They followed one suspect to a Fleet Farm in Green Bay, where he
purchased six pairs of pruning shears. They watched another man
purchase 9 mm ammunition at a nearby Wal-Mart, documents said.

      The suspected growers eventually led investigators to a house in
Seymour, about 15 miles southwest of Green Bay. According to court
documents, the house was a marijuana processing factory.


      According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, drug
agents around the country seized about a million plants a year
between 2004 and 2008. In 2008 alone, agents seized or destroyed
7.6 million marijuana plants from about 20,000 illicit plots.


      In Wisconsin, the number of seized plants  grew six-fold
between 2003 and 2008, a year when more than 32,000 plants were
seized. Authorities eradicated $2.5 million worth of marijuana
plants in the national forest system alone, said Richard Glodowski,
special agent in charge of the U.S. Forest Service's investigations
in the eastern half of the U.S.

      Drug investigators believe Mexican cartels are largely
responsible for the spike. Growing the drug here helps them get it
to major American markets more quickly. They often import unskilled
laborers from Mexico to help find the best land and tend their
crops.


      The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest covers about 1.5 million
acres across northern Wisconsin and is divided into two sections --
the 860,000-acre Chequamegon in far northwestern Wisconsin and the
660,000-acre Nicolet portion in northeastern Wisconsin.


      The southeastern edge of the Nicolet portion lies about 50 miles
from Green Bay and hosts about three-quarters of the 700,000
visitors who travel to both sections each year, said Tony Erba, the
forest's deputy supervisor. Featuring dense woods, streams and
lakes, the forest is a veritable playground for campers, hikers,
ATV enthusiasts and hunters -- and a perfect haven for growing
marijuana.


      About 163,000 people use the southeastern tip of the Nicolet
where the farms were established each year. Most of the plots were
in secluded areas, forest supervisor Paul Strong said. But
investigators realized bear hunting season and fall leaves would
soon bring more people into the woods and decided to take down the
operation on Tuesday.


      Investigators discovered at least nine different plots in the
forest as well as at least 1,000 plants on the adjacent Menominee
Indian Reservation.


      Oconto County Sheriff Mike Jansen estimated they seized about
50,000 plants, but Van Hollen cautioned that authorities were still
counting and the number currently stood closer to 10,000. The
attorney general estimated that each plant might yield a pound of
marijuana worth about $1,000.


      "This amount of marijuana in northern Wisconsin is a big, big
deal," Van Hollen said.


      A search of the Seymour house found marijuana drying throughout
it and a stash of firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle.
Officers said the smell of pot permeated the entire house. They
also raided a storage unit, where they discovered a wire transfer
of $2,500 to a man in Modesto, Calif., about $6,000 in cash and 72
pounds worth of processed marijuana in cardboard boxes and garbage
bags - yet another cartel grow operation standby.

      Eight men were arrested and arraigned Wednesday in federal court
on charges of conspiring to manufacture and distribute more than
1,000 marijuana plants and possession with intent to deliver more
than 100 marijuana plants. Four more men were arraigned on
Thursday. Three were charged with the same counts. The fourth,
Bernabe J. Nunez-Guzman, was charged only with conspiracy, but
court documents indicate he was the ring leader.


      An unnamed informant arrested at the Seymour house told
detectives on Wednesday he was in San Jose, Calif., several months
ago when he was approached by a man who asked him if he wanted to
work at a ranch. This person arranged for the man to travel to
Green Bay, where he met Nunez-Guzman.
 


     The informant said he helped dry marijuana at the house and
Nunez-Guzman, also known as "Green Bay," was the boss. He came to
the house every 15 days to check on the operation and sent a runner
into the woods every three days to check the crop.


      Federal defender Krista Halla-Valdes, who represents the four
men charged Thursday, said she hasn't seen any evidence in the case
and it's too early to comment.


      Cartel grow recruiters often look for people with family in
Mexico so they can use them as leverage to keep the farmers working
and quiet. If anyone betrays the farm, they go after the worker's
family, intelligence experts say.


      Associated Press Writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this
story from El Paso, Texas.
      

Gallery

Crime, Law and Justice

Investigators say a band of men turned the forest's
southeastern tip into a giant pot farm, growing thousands of plants
on remote plots, moving supplies along forgotten logging roads and
buying supplies and ammunition at local stores.

Hidden in Wis. national forest: marijuana megafarm

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