6 charged in big marijuana bust in northern Wis.

By: Associated Press//August 12, 2011//

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged six men with working in a large-scale marijuana growing operation in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin.

U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said on Friday that five of the men are Mexican citizens and one of them, 40-year-old Norberto Burciago, is from St. Paul, Minn.

Ashland County Sheriff Mick Brennan said nearly 10,000 marijuana plants were destroyed in the bust and had an estimated street value of $1 million. About 175 law enforcement agents participated on Wednesday.

The pot farm was in a remote part of the 1.5-million-acre forest. Authorities began their investigation after a hunter’s tip in November.

The Mexican citizens charged are 19-year-old Jose Equeda-Garcia, 21-year-old Cesar Omar Tinoco, 29-year-old Abraham Ramirez and 21-year-old Moises Lopez-Ontiveros and his brother 24-year-old Jorge Lopez-Ontiveros.

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