EXCLUSIVE: Massive pot growing operations sprouting in San Bernardino County

At first glance, you could almost mistake it for a Christmas tree farm.

But take a closer look and you’ll see hundreds of budding, illegal marijuana plants.

Hidden near Joshua Tree National Park, you’d never know a massive pot growing operation sat behind some dirt-colored tarp.

“We have a lot of open land, it’s very easy to come way out here in a remote area and set up an operation like this,” said an undercover sergeant with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Behind the grow-ops are large drug-trafficking organizations, and undercover sheriff’s detectives are hot on their trail.

Their mission is secret and at times dangerous, so we can’t reveal the identity of the sergeant who let us go along.

“Our numbers have been doubling in the last three years,” he revealed.

This year is no exception. Since spring, the marijuana enforcement task force has busted 40 plywood grow operations. It’s seized more than 13,000 plants and hundreds of pounds of processed pot.

Detectives also arrested 50 people, some found living at the cultivation sites. But they aren’t the ones who fund these farms.

Often, the leaders of the drug operations remain across the border: Mexican nationals who don’t want to risk getting caught. The drug lords establish these pot farms both in Mexico and here, where the climate and strains of marijuana seed are far superior.

“They can bring a lot of marijuana across the border easily, but it’s not the same quality as the marijuana grown here in California,” said the sergeant.

In Mexico, they can grow more plants, quicker. But here, the quality will get them a lot more green for their green.

“It’s just the amount of profit that can be made. There are a lot of groups out there who realize that and want to capitalize on that,” he said.

When mature, some of the plants can produce up to half a pound of pot. And the street value for the kind of marijuana grown here ranges from $1500 to $3000 per pound.

“And you multiply that by 200-300 plants,” the sergeant said of the average grow operation bust.

At that rate, busting the nearly 800-plant lot found in Joshua Tree could send more than a million dollars from a drug trafficker’s profits up in smoke.

So how does the task force find these grow operations?

Detectives are often tipped off by neighbors who get a whiff of the overwhelming smell as the plants mature. But they also search for them by air, and say a trained eye can easily distinguish these greens.

“Depending on how the sun is hitting them, they will look a fluorescent green color that’s different from any other kind of plant,” the sergeant said.

Once they track the operations down, detectives serve search warrants and move in, like they did at the operation found just off Daisy Lane in Joshua Tree.

At least one grower lived out of a small trailer in a makeshift campground littered with garbage. Detectives arrested three people there but found no weapons. That’s not always the case, as growers are often prepared to defend their crop.

Once detectives document the scene, they pull the plants out, count them and send them to be destroyed.

“They’re destroyed through two means: one is through a process of burying the marijuana and another is an incinerator location we utilize,” the sergeant said.

The plants seized by detective won’t make it onto the streets, but the task force still has a lot of work ahead to get a hold on this budding business.