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Mexican national pleads guilty to marijuana cultivation

Posted: 3:37 PM, Feb 11, 2019

Updated: 2019-02-11 23:37:01Z

By: Kelly Broderick

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

MIAMI - FEBRUARY 02: A judges gavel rests on top of a desk in the courtroom of the newly opened Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum February 3, 2009 in Miami, Florida. The museum is located in the only known structure in the nation that was designed, devoted to and operated as a separate station house and municipal court for African-Americans. In September 1944, the first black patrolmen were sworn in as emergency policemen to enforce the law in what was then called the "Central Negro District." The precinct building opened in May 1950 to provide a station house for the black policemen and a courtroom for black judges in which to adjudicate black defendants. The building operated from 1950 until its closing in 1963. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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FRESNO, Calif. — A 29-year-old Mexican national plead guilty on Monday to marijuana cultivation in the Kiavah Wilderness, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, Rodolfo Torres-Galvan and his co-defendants, 31-year-old Mauricio Vaca-Bucio and 35-year-old Felipe Angeles Valdez-Colima were apprehended after a two month investigation.

Officers found freshly harvested marijuana in a Camaro that Vaca and Torres were driving in and then located over 1,800 marijuana plants at the grow sight. Officers also found deadly illegal pesticides in the vehicle and at the grow site.

After pleading guilty, Torres agreed to pay over $7,000 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service for the environmental damage caused to the National Forest.

Torres is scheduled for sentencing on April 29, 2019. Valdez plead guilty in January and is scheduled for sentencing on April 22. They face a minimum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison along with a $10 million fine.

The charges against Vaca are pending and are only allegations; he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.