Drug Enforcement Agency

A raid on a pot farm in rural Lake County on Wednesday yielded nearly 20,000 marijuana plants, said a spokesman with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The marijuana would have been worth more than $80 million when it was harvested this fall, according to agency spokesman Richard Meyer. DEA agents arrested medical marijuana activist Charles "Eddy" Lepp on marijuana cultivation charges, Meyer said. Twelve other people also were arrested during the raid.

A Turlock man was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in federal prison in what authorities called the largest narcotics case in Stanislaus County history. Jose Ibarra, 35, had pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine and possessing a firearm in the commission of a crime. After Ibarra was arrested in November, the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency said it had broken a ring that had channeled millions of dollars of illegal drugs through Modesto for the last 20 years.

Sheriff's deputies and federal drug agents raided a 20-acre estate, discovering a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation based at a million-dollar house, authorities said today. Search warrants were served on the house at 4363 E. Ave. E Thursday night, and officials seized about 6,000 plants that had been cultivated with an intricate irrigation system, Deputy Roger Hom said.

The Drug Enforcement Agency said security has been tightened at its headquarters in Washington, and a large truck, presumably to ward off terrorist attacks, has appeared in front of the building. The New York Daily News reported that Colombian drug traffickers have threatened to blow up the building in retaliation against U.S. efforts to extradite alleged drug kingpins from the South American nation.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials detained Mel Hall of the New York Yankees at Boston's Logan International Airport on Friday because they thought he was a drug lord, the outfielder said. Hall said the agents searched a carry-on bag and found his New York Yankees' identification. He also said the agents told him they detained him because he "resembled a drug lord." DEA spokesman Stephen Morreale said the incident "took no more than 30 seconds" and was blown out of proportion.

Federal agents staging raids in nine states arrested 81 members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang on warrants charging them with narcotics, weapons and racketeering offenses. The gang is believed to control a major part of the U.S. methamphetamine--or "speed"--and PCP drug trade, the FBI said. FBI Director William H.