Dean

According to evidence before the Grand Jury of Nevada County, a letter from an anonymous informant tipped off the authorities to the possibility of commercial marijuana cultivation in an isolated area of the Sierra foothills, an activity hidden from view by the surrounding hills and woods. The county sheriff dispatched an airplane and a deputy to the general area indicated by the informant. On its first “pass” the plane flew at an altitude of 700 feet. Among the trees the deputy saw a sizeable green patch near a dirt road. From a second pass, at an altitude of 400 to 500 feet, the deputy formed the belief that the patch was a field of growing marijuana. The plane dropped to an altitude of 300 feet and made a third pass. Using his binoculars, the officer was now able to discern the leaves’ shape and their growth habit in clusters of five, typical of cannabis sativa. The cultivated area seemed to be about half the size of a football field. The surrounding trees had been topped to increase the plants’ exposure to the beneficent rays of the sun. The plants had grown to heights of 15 to 20 feet.

A few days later sheriff’s personnel in plain clothes conducted two foot…