Park's Pot Problem Explodes

But based on statements from informants and wiretaps, officials at the state narcotics agency and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said the Mexican cartels appear to have financial ties to Middle Eastern groups.

Hezbollah Tie Alleged

"We have a number of methamphetamine cases where we've made a direct connection between the Hezbollah and Mexican cartels," said Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the state's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program for the Central Valley and a former DEA agent.

The DEA suspects that associates of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been smuggling large amounts of pseudoephedrine tablets in cars and trucks across the Canadian border for sale to the drug cartels in California.

Last month the DEA and Canadian authorities arrested 65 people, including a number of Jordanian citizens, suspected of smuggling pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient of methamphetamine, bound for California.

The state narcotics bureau has come to suspect that the cartels are using profits from the resale of the pseudoephedrine to bankroll the sharp increase in marijuana cultivation on public land.

The pot growers go to extraordinary measures to hide themselves and their operations. White sneakers are spray-painted brown or green, as are the handles of gardening tools. If growers cut a tree, the exposed stump is painted.

"You can be right up against a garden and not know it," Ranger Dan Abbe said.

The trails to the camps are often faint and treacherous -- the outposts are so hard to locate that DeLaCruz recently had trouble finding his way back to one of the gardens destroyed by drug agents last year. Armed with M-16s and 9-millimeter pistols, DeLaCruz and Abbe veered off a popular trail and bushwhacked up a steep hillside.

Low-slung oaks and stout mountain mahogany formed a canopy over the chaparral-covered foothills. The natural camouflage, along with the soil and climate, provide ideal conditions for growing high-quality marijuana, which sells for $4,000 to $8,000 a pound.

The rangers scrambled upward and after 10 minutes arrived at a level shelf of packed dirt. Trash was strewn everywhere -- empty cans, torn packets of noodles, a crusty leather rifle scabbard. A soggy sleeping bag was stuffed behind a tree.

Abbe said the site was a staging area, a place for newly arrived workers to rest before pushing up the mountain to the camps. Animals had been here, rummaging through the shallow garbage dump.