Calif. pot growers use alligator to protect stash, say cops

(CBS/AP) HEMET, Calif.  - California narcotics investigators raiding a home's $1.5 million marijuana growing operation found an alligator guarding the stash.

Pictures: Most outrageous mug shots

A Riverside County drug task force team moved in on the Hemet area house on Monday night and seized 2,285 pot plants. Allied Riverside Cities Narcotics Enforcement Team Cmdr. Brian Link says agents also found Wally, a four-foot alligator described as a "watchgator."

The healthy 55-pound American alligator, which was reportedly living in a cement-mixing tub filled with water, has been turned over to the Phelan-based Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary. Keeping an alligator is illegal in California.

According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, agents seized 2,285 marijuana plants.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise says 29-year-old John Nathan Donna, who lives in the home, has been arrested and booked for investigation of marijuana cultivation and possession. He was released Tuesday on $100,000 bail.