Men arrested at Boron underground marijuana grow said they were told they’d be growing vegetables

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — They said an advertisement promised work growing vegetables. The job instead involved maintaining a massive underground marijuana grow.

Recently released sheriff’s reports provide new details about a drug operation in Boron in which buried shipping containers were used to grow and dry thousands of marijuana plants. The facility had electricity and water, plenty of lights and a cooling system.

Three men found at the site and identified as Chinese nationals said food, water and fuel arrived every three to five days.

One said he’d been living there only a few days. Another said a trailer on the property had been his home for almost a year.

Qingxue Zhang, 57, Siyun Cao, 32, and Xiyyu Zou, 53, face conspiracy and drug-related offenses. Charges were filed last week and a hearing is scheduled in March.

On Aug. 6, authorities raided a location northwest of Sequoia Boulevard and Occidental Street, locating and destroying 17,650 marijuana plants and seizing 1,069 pounds of processed marijuana, officials said.

Above ground, trash and hundreds of empty fertilizer and pesticide containers covered the property. Industrial-sized cooling fans were dumped in a pile. Fifty-five-gallon drums containing pesticide, fuel and unknown chemicals were found.

West of the east entrance, camper trailers were parked together “in an area that had been severely excavated,” according to the reports. The underground grow was located past them.

After arresting the men — two tried to flee — detectives questioned them separately. They gave similar stories about responding to an online advertisement seeking employees to help grow vegetables, according to the reports.

With the assistance of a Mandarin Chinese interpreter, Cao told detectives he quickly realized what the actual work involved. He said he watered and trimmed plants.

Cao and the others said they could not remember the name of the agency they contacted or who runs the operation.

Having only been there a few days, Cao said he hadn’t been paid. He told detectives he was supposed to make $3,000 a month.

The others reported making between $3,500 to $4,000 a month.

One of the men — his name was redacted in the reports — told detectives the difficulty of finding employment led him to stay at the grow site for nearly a year.

“(Name redacted) told me he works at the marijuana grow because he could not find work anywhere else, and he has bills to pay,” an investigator wrote.

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