What's in Tulare County Orange Grove? 6,305 Pot Plants.

By Bill McEwen, News Director

Published 5 years ago on

February 18, 2020

A federal grand jury in Fresno indicted Diego Garcia Lua on Friday charging him with cultivating marijuana and maintaining a drug-involved premises.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the 61-year-old Lua used his orange orchard in Orange Cove to disguise the presence of approximately 6,305 marijuana plants he was growing there.

Tulare County Sheriff and DEA Investigation

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen A. Servatius and Katherine E. Schuh are the prosecutors.
If convicted, Lua faces a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine on count one and a 20-year maximum penalty and $250,000 fine on count two.
Any sentence, however, would be at the discretion of the court after consideration of applicable statutory factors and federal sentencing guidelines.

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Bill McEwen,

News Director

Bill McEwen is news director and columnist for GV Wire. He joined GV Wire in August 2017 after 37 years at The Fresno Bee. With The Bee, he served as Opinion Editor, City Hall reporter, Metro columnist, sports columnist and sports editor through the years. His work has been frequently honored by the California Newspapers Publishers Association, including authoring first-place editorials in 2015 and 2016. Bill and his wife, Karen, are proud parents of two adult sons, and they have two grandsons. You can contact Bill at 559-492-4031 or at Send an Email