Two men sentenced to prison for growing marijuana in national forest

Two men are facing 21 months in prison after authorities recovered 8,656 marijuana plants in the Big Mountain area in Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Armando Vargas Garcia, 38, Eduardo Montero Aleman, 38, both from Mexico, will also have to pay $34,931 in restitution for the damage to the land in the national forest. U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley sentenced the two men for a conspiracy to cultivate marijuana, marijuana cultivation and depredation of federal lands and resources, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

Court documents show that between Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, the defendants were involved in large-scale marijuana cultivation. The case was investigated by the U.S. Forest Service, the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Trinity County District Attorney’s Office.

Officers found two compound archery bows, nine arrows and 42 rounds of hollow-point .22-caliber ammunition on the property. Bottles of carbofuran, a toxic pesticide banned in the U.S., were also recovered.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adrian Kinsella, according to U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.