Ventura County Sheriff's Department

On 11/8/2011, members of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Bureau, West County Street Team, and the
Sheriff’s Air Unit conducted a reconnaissance flight in the Alamo Mountain area of North Eastern Ventura County near Pyramid Lake. Investigators located growing marijuana surrounding a makeshift campsite on a hillside a short distance above Piru Creek. The hillside had been terraced and large tracts of brush and trees were removed. Plastic irrigation hose ran from an adjacent canyon where water was gravity fed to the plants.

In the campsite and surrounding area, detectives found an estimated 130 lbs. of manicured marijuana drying on tarps under trees. The camp had sleeping equipment for several people and a large store of food and supplies were found. It appeared to investigators that the camp had been used that day and they believed the suspects were possibly still in the area. A footpath with fresh footprints was located heading into a rugged canyon above the campsite. Detectives followed these tracks for approximately one half mile when they came upon seven subjects: Jose Inzaunza 40, Bruno Mata 24, Luis Diego 27, Jesus Chavez 20, Juan Hernandez 30, David Aispuro 20, all from Losa Angeles, and Miguel Martinez 42, Compton. These subjects were trying to elude deputies and had come to a dangerous cliff area with nowhere else to hide. The detectives assisted the exhausted men up the steep hillside to a location where they could be airlifted out. It was determined these subjects were involved in the marijuana cultivation discovered in the area. They were all arrested and subsequently booked into the Sheriff’s Main Jail.

The Sheriff’s Office encourages those who frequent the Ventura County backcountry to report any suspicious activity to authorities.