Panga delivers at least $18 million of pot to Big Sur

June 15, 2015

7.14.13 pangaA panga boat with approximately $18 million worth of marijuana popped up in Big Sur Friday, prompting Monterey County investigators to track down four suspects who were traveling in San Luis Obispo County. [Mercury News]

The Monterey County Sheriff’s narcotics team and gang task force responded to reports of a beached panga around 1:30 p.m. They found the boat sitting on the rocks a few feet from shoreline at the Mill Creek picnic area, which is located within the Los Padres National Forest.

Monterey sheriff’s personnel found more than 100 bales of marijuana inside the boat. They also found evidence that the smuggling suspects were still in the area.

Later, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s deputies assisted by stopping a vehicle with four men inside that Monterey County investigators said were the suspects. All four of the men were arrested for possession of marijuana for sale.

Three of the suspects are residents of Yuma Arizona: They are Alejandro Acosta, 25; Jesus Garibay, 24; and Alexis Felix Garibay, 18. The fourth suspect, 27-year-old Gonzalo Ruiz Quezara, is a resident of Riverside.

Monterey County sheriff’s personnel seized the boat and marijuana. They booked the suspects in Monterey County Jail.


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“resident” could mean a lot of things, are they Illegal Aliens?


good, keep that brickweed grown with god knows what down in mexico.


Once again, this story shows just how vital the Sherriff’s speedboat is to catching these criminals.


What a waste of $$$.


With all our technology…why aren’t there drones or some sort of satelites that can “track” these boats? Are they coming from Mexico?? Don’t we have some sort of sonar that tracks the path of the airplanes? I just don’t get HOW they make it to our shores. Do anyone else feel UNSAFE living here on the coast of California? If they can just come ashore with a panga boat full of pot then what stops a boat load of TERRORIST from coming ashore with bombs for chemical warfare??? This is so scary to me. I wouldn’t mind more “surveillance” in order to PROTECT our borders…not just the land but the SEA. Come on US gov’t do your job! You can track cows who might be infected with disease but you can’t track these little boats coming ashore with illegal drugs. So irritating.


So we should throw more money at our problems and increase restrictions instead of working out their underlying causes? To answer your question: no, i don’t feel unsafe living on the coast of california. Never have. I do think we can and should make our world a better place, but i dont think building more drones is the best way to go about it.


Too small for satellite and too low for radar (sonar is for finding things on the bottom of the ocean and is used by airplanes to find submarines using buoys dropped into the water)

You really need to sit down with a globe and take a look at just how big the ocean is.


Hmmm, I can hear it now. “Maybe if we had two Sheriff’s Panga Intercept Boats”…


“Residents”, not necessarily citizens, but amnesty will allow them to become citizens or just live here anyway, and get free/subsidized housing, food stamps, free schooling for their kids and in-state tuition for state colleges, should they apply, free breakfasts and lunches for them in the meantime, reduced-cost utilities, maybe even a free electric car!- and don’t forget all the charities that buy these kids backpacks, bicycles, soccer clothes, and reduced fee daycare and summer camps. Did I forget free medical care? O my goodness how stupid of me! – and on and on.


These men won’t do a day in prison because the charges will be plea-bargained down and the prisons are overcrowded. We won’t deport them because we would break up their illegal families who live so well at our expense.


It’s only taxpayers’ money and if YOU don’t pay it, you WILL go to prison, it’s your duty/responsibility/price YOU pay to let everyone else live here on your dollars. Who in government cares? No one.


Any wonder we are losing our country?


Not losing ….It’s been lost for years to people like yourself.


Sell it to all of the pot stores and use the proft to fix our dilapidated infrastructure around the county. After all it is legal.


Who makes the pot worth $18 million? Think about it.


Your government is who.


Pot is as cheap to grow as corn. Corn sells for about $35 a bushel. A bushel weighs about 40lbs. Think about it. Pot should sell for less than $1 per pound!


The reason it sells for $260 per ounce is because of the government rules, restrictions and laws.


If the law said it is worth $18 million then that is what the public is willing to pay, just like the propety tax valuation on your home, full-cash-value. The public is what developes this industry just like the Indian Casinos in California or the Philipinno Card Casino’s in California. If you want more facts, just spend a little time to look around. While we play, smoke our money and complain about being broke, there are many other cultures building generational wealth.


If the law said it is worth $18 million then that is what the public is willing to pay, just like the propety tax valuation on your home, full-cash-value.

————–

Huh? Apples to oranges comparison. Pot is a crop like corn or coffee or hay. There is no comparison to homes. If you want a good comparison compare it to wheat or barley.


Furthermore, pot is illegal under federal law and ridiculously limited and regulated and manipulated under all state laws (even those that make it legal) which keeps supply exceptionally low compared to demand— which is what drives up the price.


How many pangas are these pot smugglers gonna give away to the cops?! Slo county and Monterey county must have enough for thier own navy by now.


The better question would be, how many pangas are going to make it to shore before Parkinson’s boat is actually involved in stopping ONE from reaching the beach?


The answer to that is easy. All of them, unless the panga runs straight into them while they are out “training” (pleasure crusing)

Pangas are just as fast as the Sherrif’s boat except on flat calm water (almost never happens) Which also leads to the question, just what exactly does the sherif think he’s going to do if in the wild chance they do encounter a panga, shoot it? chase it to shore and beach the sherriff yacht? Not Likely. About the only reasonable scenario I can think of is they radio the onshore deputies and give them the location.


They cut the boats up and auction off the motors. Impressive boats. Too bad.


Yes, way too bad. In fact, almost criminal. They don’t yank the engines out of confiscated cars and crush the body. I can see no sane reason for this


The river was deep and the river was wide, mariquana. Milk and honey on the other side, mari-jua–anna. Miguel rowed his boat ashore, mariquana……was that really a song?


They are just doing the jobs that americans don’t want to do.