A man arrested last September in a field of marijuana plants has been convicted by a Yolo County jury of cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale.
The jury also found that 57-year-old Fidel Alvarez was armed with a firearm during the commission of these crimes, according to a Yolo County District Attorney's Office news release.
On Sept. 6, 2012, agents from with the Yolo County Narcotics Enforcement Team and the Mountain and Valley Marijuana Investigations Team discovered a marijuana grow on public lands off Highway 16 in Yolo County. The marijuana grow contained more than 500 plants that would have been ready for harvest within a few days, officials said. Agents found Alvarez walking through the field of plants dressed in camouflage clothing and carrying a .22-caliber rifle and a homemade flash suppressor.
Alvarez admitted to agents that he had been hired by drug dealers in Richmond to tend the marijuana grow, officials said. He stated that he was going to receive a percentage of the profits from the sale of the marijuana. Experts testified that the plants would produce between 250 and 500 pounds of marijuana, which would have a street value of $250,000 to $500,000.
Alvarez is to be sentenced Feb. 25 by Yolo Superior Court Judge Timothy L. Fall, who presided over the trial.
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