Two Arraigned In Major Drug Distribution Case

Based on intelligence obtained from a Forest Service special agent, a marijuana patch was discovered on USFS property adjacent to the park last September. A surveillance operation was conducted and two men were seen accessing and entering the patch from the parkway. The pair harvested 3,800 plants totaling more than 450 pounds. They were arrested after they loaded their vehicle and were about to leave the area. The two men – Mitchell Graska and Justin Saldivar – were found to be involved in a marijuana drug trafficking organization operating in Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Nevada, Nebraska, and California. They were arraigned on January 28th on federal conspiracy charges involving the distribution and the possession with the intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. The two men were part of a ring that investigators believe distributed more than 12 tons of marijuana around the country. Last November, a federal grand jury in Greeneville, Tennessee, indicted 33 people on 22 separate drug and weapons charges, marking the culmination of a major interagency investigation code-named “Operation Talisman” that involved dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement organizations,