Walla Walla man pleads guilty in Banks pot grow

Jose Martin Diaz Lara, 33, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from a marijuana farm where police seized 6,870 plants last fall.

Diaz pleaded guilty in federal court in Boise to conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Diaz and co-defendant Carlos Avalos Cervantes, 30, from Walla Walla, Wash., set up the farm in a remote timber canyon north of Banks, in Boise County. Avalos earlier pleaded guilty to the same charges and both men are scheduled to be sentenced April 19.

They each face up to 20 years on the manufacturing charge and at least five years on the weapons charge, which would run consecutive to the other sentence.

Two other Mexican nationals, David Becerra Saucedo, 41, from Milton-Freewater, Ore., and Rogelio Arvalo Villasenor, 23, from Caldwell, were also arrested. They have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go on trial May 9.

All four men are Mexican nationals who entered the United States illegally, the U.S. attorney’s office reports.

The case was investigated by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force. Numerous city, county, state and federal agencies in Idaho, Oregon and Washington state took part in the case.

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Walla Walla man pleads guilty in Banks pot grow."