Two arrested in marijuana bust sentenced for illegally entering US

Two men arrested in a June marijuana bust were sentenced Monday for illegally entering the country, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii sentenced Jorge Garrido Mendoza, 24, and Francisco Pedraza Garcia, 24, of McFarland, to six months in custody and referred them to immigration authorities, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.

Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Rooney, who is prosecuting the case, said charges of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana against Mendoza and Garcia were dismissed.

"I would be shocked if they were not deported," Rooney said. The two men are from Mexico, according to court records.

Mendoza and Garcia and six others were arrested June 15 when the Kern County Sheriff's Department raided a marijuana field just off Highway 65, north of Sherwood Avenue, according to Californian archives.

Court documents said officers destroyed about 2,462 marijuana plants.

A U.S. Attorney's office news release said the plants were "ostensibly for medicinal purposes."

Mendoza and Garcia told deputies that they had entered the U.S. illegally, according to court records. They told investigators they were hired to tend the plants by Bernardino Garcia, who said he would pay them with marijuana after the site was harvested, according to court records. He is charged with conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.

Mendoza and Francisco Garcia pleaded guilty to illegally entering the U.S., a misdemeanor, on Oct. 24 as part of a plea agreement.

Rooney said he would not comment on why the agreement was reached.