Local News in Brief : Copter Spots Pot Patch; Man Arrested

An Agoura Hills man was in jail Friday after two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a helicopter spotted him working amid about 200 marijuana plants in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, authorities said. Robert Carlat, 30, was being held in lieu of $2,500 bail after his arrest on suspicion of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale.

Two deputies were flying a routine patrol at 3:30 p.m. Thursday when they spotted a pocket of marijuana plants on a rugged hillside about a mile south of Mulholland Highway, Detective John Gentzvein said. “They circled around in the helicopter and they saw Carlat on a ladder pruning one of the taller plants,” he said.

The pilot landed the helicopter and his partner got out and caught Carlat, who had started running when he saw the helicopter, deputies said.

Deputies eventually uprooted about 200 marijuana plants, ranging from one to 12 feet tall, growing on a two-acre site in pockets of brush connected by a network of paths. The street value of the marijuana was put at more than $100,000.