18,000-plant marijuana grow found in El Paso County
Local and federal authorities, acting on a tip from a passerby, cleared out an illegal marijuana grow Thursday in northwestern El Paso County.
The grow was found off Rampart Range Road near the Rampart Reservoir and Campground, about 6 miles east of Woodland Park.
The U.S. Forest Service said a camper or hiker alerted them several weeks ago to the presence of the camp, which was found to have 18,300 plants around 18 inches in height.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team entered the camp Thursday morning and found it vacant.
In addition to the plants, approximately 2,000 pounds of infrastructure were found — including irrigation pipe, camping gear, tarps, trash, chemicals to deter wildlife and multiple 50-pound bags of fertilizer.
The Forest Service said the grower or growers used a network of hoses to irrigate the marijuana with water from the nearby reservoir.
A Blackhawk helicopter from the Colorado National Guard transported the evidence to an unspecified location where it will be destroyed.
There were no arrests made and there are no suspects identified.
“We don’t know how many people were at the camp or how long it had been there,” said Lawrence Lujan, a Forest Service spokesman. “This is very common in Colorado on national forest system lands. We average about 4 to 8 eradications per year and a majority of them are occurring along the Front Range national forests.”
The cleanup job isn’t over yet because of concerns about damage to the environment and to wildlife.
“We’ll have to go back later to get the things that weren’t safe to remove by helicopter,” said Oscar Martinez, a Forest Service ranger.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also participated in the bust.
Authorities said around 30 people were involved and hiked five miles to the camp.
People who live in the area or visit the campground have mixed emotions about the grow being near them.
“If you’re out hiking and you stumble on something like that, you don’t know what they’re going to do to you,” said Douglas and Sherry DeNoyer of Security-Widefield. “It’s concerning. We’re just hoping the Forest Service will step it up.”
The Ackart family of Woodland Park reflected on the illegal grow.
“If they’ve been growing that much product for so long and there hasn’t been a whole lot of change in the community, I haven’t really noticed anything,” Rett Ackart said.
“You know what worries me the most about it, is they’re piping water in from the reservoir and not paying for it,” Denise Ackart said. “We all pay for our water and they’re not paying for any of theirs.”
Dutch Ackart said he finds the situation puzzling.
“I’m a little surprised,” he said. “This is a good, secluded area to grow marijuana illegally. But seeing that it’s legalized and people are growing it legally, why take the chance of doing it illegally?”
You’re asked to contact U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement at 303-275-5266 if you have any information about the case.
