Abel Toledo-Villa, Marijuana Cultivation Conspiracy, California 2017

FRESNO, Calif. — Abel Toledo-Villa, a 35-year-old man from Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute 3,850 plants found in the Sequoia National Forest in Kern County.

Toledo-Villa pleaded guilty to the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on August 14, 2017. He acknowledged that he had left the area after law enforcement agents entered the grow site. He was later found in a vehicle that contained about 8.5 pounds of processed marijuana, fertilizer, a rifle, and 106 rounds of ammunition.

As part of his plea agreement, Toledo-Villa agreed to pay $5,233 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for the damage he caused to public land and natural resources. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison for the drug conspiracy, and up to a $5 million fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

An investigation by the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Southern Tri-County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force, the California Department of Justice’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, the Fontana Police Department, and the Victorville Police Department led to the charges against Toledo-Villa.

This is not the first time that marijuana cultivation operations have been disrupted in the Sequoia National Forest. In a separate case, two other men, Audencio Pineda-Gaona, 37, and Candelario Jimenez-Ramirez, 55, both of Mexico, were sentenced to two and a half years in prison for conspiring to cultivate, distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana grown on forest land in the Giant Sequoia National Monument in Tulare County.

The marijuana cultivation operation caused extensive damage to the land and natural resources. Native trees and shrubs had been cut down to make room for the marijuana plants. Water had been diverted from a tributary stream of the Kern River, which supports Kern River rainbow trout, a “Species of Special Concern” in the state of California. Agents also found harmful banned pesticides and large amounts of trash.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen Escobar.

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