A 34-year-old San Jose man was cited and released after his illegal marijuana growing operation was discovered and eradicated last week.

The discovery was made at 2015 Walnut Avenue on Wednesday, May 6.

Several weeks ago, Officers Jon Blount and Nicolas Welsh, responding to numerous complaints from the drug hotline, began watching the property on the suspicion of an illegal marijuana grow. The property had no buildings and only fences surrounding makeshift canopy type structures. 

Once they had enough evidence of an illegal marijuana grow, they authored a search warrant. They planned on having the warrant reviewed and signed by a judge on May 7 but on the evening of May 6, Officers Blount and Welsh checked on the property and could hear several gas powered generators running behind the fence. They knocked on the gate and a male speaking in broken English said, “It’s ok” but did not open the gate. The officers heard rustling and saw two men jump over the back fence onto Sunburst Court.

Officer Blount drove around the block and located one of the two men who had run. Gilberto Ramirez-Torres, 34, of San Jose, admitted to being the caretaker of the marijuana grow and responsible for the property. Ramirez-Torres signed a search wavier, allowing the officers onto the property where they found 546 immature marijuana plants and approximately 324 pounds of dried marijuana product. The grow was eradicated the next day by patrol officers.

Due to the state mandated zero-bail policy because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, Ramirez-Torres was cited and released for cultivation of marijuana.