MENDOCINO COUNTY – State and county officials found firearms – including one that had been stolen – while eradicating marijuana gardens near Laytonville on Tuesday.

Teams consisting of the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies and the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team (COMMET) responded to a call of marijuana being grown on a private ranch in the Laytonville area, according to a report from Lt. Rusty Noe of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

Noe said the teams walked into the remote site and discovered three marijuana gardens. While walking into the gardens deputies spotted two Hispanic males who fled from the area.

A camp was located with evidence the Hispanic males were living in the gardens while tending them, Noe said.

At the site Noe said the teams recovered three loaded firearms – an SKS assault-type rifle, a shotgun and a .44-caliber Ruger revolver, which later was found to have been stolen from Del Norte County.

He said 1,005 marijuana plants – all well into the growth stage – were seized with no arrests being made.

To date the Mendocino County COMMET team has seized 420,392 plants from 104 sites. Noe said the plants were estimated to be 56,610 pounds wet weight.

There have been 55 arrests and 59 firearms seized, he said, and 582 pounds of processed marijuana has been seized.

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