BOISE — A Mexican national illegally living in Parma, Idaho, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a massive marijuana grow operation on protected public land. Rogelio Arevalo-Villasenor, 24, pleaded guilty on July 14, 2016, to conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance involving more than 1,000 marijuana plants, with intent to distribute. The announcement was made today by U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson.
Visiting Senior U.S. District Judge Dee V. Benson handed down the 18-month sentence and ordered Arevalo-Villasenor to serve one year of supervised release upon release from prison. Given his undocumented status, federal authorities expect he will be deported to Mexico following his sentence completion. Arevalo-Villasenor admitted in court to supplying groceries and supplies to workers at the remote grow site on at least three occasions, dropping them off at a trailhead just off Highway 55.
The operation was uncovered on September 23, 2015, when co-defendants Martin Diaz-Lara and Carlos Avalos-Cervantes were arrested in a canyon half a mile from the North Fork of the Payette River, ten miles north of Banks in Boise County. Agents found 6,870 live and harvested marijuana plants scattered across state and federal land. The grow site, built deep in rugged terrain, used banned Mexican pesticide carbofuran — a toxin outlawed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1991 after killing millions of birds annually.
Diaz-Lara and Avalos-Cervantes each possessed handguns in furtherance of the drug trafficking operation, a charge that significantly increased their sentences. Avalos-Cervantes, already tied to a 2007 public land grow in Umatilla County, Oregon, was sentenced on April 19, 2016, to 180 months in prison. Diaz-Lara was sentenced on June 15, 2016, to 97 months behind bars. All individuals involved in the Idaho grow were Mexican nationals who entered the U.S. illegally.
The takedown was the result of a sweeping joint investigation led by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), spearheaded by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Land Management. The Nampa Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit played a key role, supported by a network of federal, state, and local agencies including the ATF, HSI, U.S. Forest Service, Idaho National Guard’s Counterdrug Support Office, and law enforcement from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
The OCDETF program, funded by the Department of Justice, targets high-level drug trafficking organizations through coordinated multi-agency operations. This case underscores the ongoing threat of transnational drug operations exploiting public lands for illicit cultivation, endangering ecosystems and communities. Authorities stress that the use of banned chemicals like carbofuran adds environmental crime to an already violent and illegal enterprise.
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Key Facts
- State: Idaho
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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