Amador County Sheriff's deputies raided a property on New York Ranch Road in Jackson Tuesday at 7 a.m. Deputies seized 1,440 marijuana plants and arrested suspects Vong Sysomsack, 49, and Phonsavanh Sounavong, 40. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

On Tuesday, Amador County Sheriff's Office deputies caught two men cultivating a large marijuana garden at a property on New York Ranch Road in Jackson that neighbors had assumed was vacant.

According to a press release from the sheriff's office, 1,440 marijuana plants were seized, along with the two suspects, Vong Sysomsack, 49, and Phonsavanh Sounavong, 40, both from Fresno. The raid started around 7 a.m. when 15 sheriff's deputies surrounded the house located on the 11000 block of New York Ranch Road, near the property line of the Jackson Rancheria Casino, Hotel and Conference Center. With an Amador Superior Court search warrant in hand and no one responding to their knocks, a deputy burst open the door with a door ram and the officers searched the house.

Jim Wegner, undersheriff, said the house was largely vacant, with the exception of some clothes, food and loose bedding on the floor where the two suspects had been sleeping. Documents indicating the identity of the owner of the property were also discovered, according to Wegner, though there was no sign of the owner having lived there. Wegner declined to discuss what the owner's relationship was with the men found on her property. Her name was not released, pending investigation, but records show that the house, previously vacant, was purchased earlier this year.

The deputies then raided the garden, located in a wooded area approximately 300 yards behind the house and fed by water lines from the residence. While searching the site, the two men were found working in the plants.

"We told them to comply with an order. They complied," Wegner said. "They came without incident."

Through further investigation, the deputies learned that Sysomsack and Sounavong had been hired to stay at the residence, tend to and harvest the marijuana plants. The plants were uprooted by the deputies and loaded into a truck. Four truckloads later, the garden had been transported to an undisclosed storage facility where it will be incinerated, according to Wegner.

Wegner declined to comment on how the cannabis operation was discovered by local authorities.

At least one of the suspects appeared in court yesterday. Both were charged with the cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and conspiracy.

Two weeks ago, on Sept. 5, another raid led by the sheriff's office resulted in the capture of 2,796 cannabis plants on public lands adjacent to Russell Creek outside of Volcano. The unoccupied site was cleared by the Amador County Sheriff's SWAT Team. Personnel from the Bureau of Land Management and the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting program assisted deputies in the seizure, according to the press release.

The site consisted of four separate cultivation areas, one campsite and one processing area. The plants and other physical evidence were flown out of the remote area with a CAMP helicopter. Additional investigation is pending.

Three weeks ago, on Aug. 30, the sheriff's office carried out their first strike of the season on a record-size plantation in the Pioneer area. The operation resulted in the eradication of 12,330 plants, valued at approximately $5 million. Though many of the marijuana operations are thought to be connected, the physical evidence found at that site has not led investigators to other sites, according to Wegner. On Tuesday, items confiscated from the site at New York Ranch Road renewed hopes of discovering such a link, Wegner said.