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Wildfire investigators in California are looking for marijuana growers tied to a Mexican drug cartel whom they suspect ignitd a blaze that has charred more than 87,000 acres of a national forest.

加利福尼亚州一处国家森林公园发生火灾，造成超过87000英亩山林被毁。火灾很可能是与贩毒集团相关的大麻种植者引起的，相关调查和搜捕正在进行中。

The La Brea Fire, which erupted August 8 in the Los Padres National Forest in the remote Santa Barbara County mountains northwest of Los Angeles, is believed to be the first major wildfire in the state caused by drug traffickers, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Jim Turner said on Monday.

大火于8月8号在洛杉矶西北部的圣巴巴拉镇的Los Padres国家森林公园开始燃烧。周一，美国林业部门发言人吉姆·特纳称，这是第一起由毒贩引起的森林大火。

A joint statement issued Saturday night by the Santa Barbara County sheriff's office and the Forest Service said the blaze was sparked by a "cooking fire in a marijuana drug trafficking operation ... believed to be run by a Mexican national drug organization."

上周六晚上，圣巴巴拉镇政府于林业部门联合发表声明，称火灾是在一次贩毒活动中中被正做饭的毒贩引燃的。这些毒贩很可能来自墨西哥。

Sheriff's spokesman Drew Sugars said investigators found tens of thousands of marijuana plants growing in the area. No arrests have been made, he said.

当地治安发言人德鲁·舒格尔说，他们在调查中发现，火灾地点种植了成千上万的大麻。目前还没有抓获任何人。

"The suspects are still at large," Turner said. "We've closed the area to the public ... so if anyone is likely to encounter them, it would be the firefighters, and of course those people have all been alerted and are on the watch."

特纳说，“嫌疑犯仍逍遥法外。我们已经封锁了火灾区域，能与疑犯相遇的只有早有准备的消防员。”

Illegal cultivation of marijuana in California's forest lands has been a significant problem for several years, prompting federal and local agencies to step up eradication efforts, Turner said.

特纳还说，多年来，加州森林地区的非法大麻种植业已非常猖獗，联邦和当地政府都在加紧脚步铲除这一问题。

The fire, which is about 75 percent contained, was the largest of several wildfires burning in the state in recent days, including one near the northern surfing town of Santa Cruz, which forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people.

这次大火是近来在美国发生的最严重的森林火灾，已迫使西部小镇桑塔克鲁兹上两千多名群众转移。