SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Marijuana busts are down, but seizures of methamphetamine and cocaine have jumped during the past two years, according to the latest statistics from the South Lake El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Millions of visitors to the South Shore each year add to local demand and cause the amount of illicit substances at the South Shore to be more per capita than towns of similar size, said SLEDNET task force commander Jeff Catchings.

“For a small town, there's definitely a huge appetite for consumption,” Catchings said.

While production of methamphetamine has shifted from domestic labs to Mexican supply routes during the past 10 years due to increased regulations surrounding the drug's precursors, the use of the drug continues at a steady pace, Catchings said.

Cocaine, too, has become more prevalent at the South Shore, Catchings said. SLEDNET confiscated less than 200 grams of the substance between 2006 and 2007, but more than 5,000 grams during the past two years.

Marijuana continues to be the most common illicit substance found at the South Shore, but recent California court decisions regarding medical marijuana have made prosecuting marijuana seizures more difficult and have caused a significant decrease in the amount of marijuana SLEDNET confiscated during the past two years, Catchings said.

“The marijuana seizures are actually way down and that's not because it's gone away,” Catchings said.

He attributed a jump in the amount of concentrated cannabis, like hash or marijuana infused food products, seized in 2009 to marijuana growers using all of their plants to make those products.

Along with increased drug seizures, the interagency task force has seen a jump in the amount of drug money at the South Shore. The $80,000 in suspected drug money seized by the task force this year is much higher than normal, Catchings said.

And investigations and seizures from the first two months of 2010 are on pace to match the trends seen during the past two years, Catchings said.

“The investigations are up and we're extremely busy right now,” Catchings said.

“We don't get all of it, but we try to make a significant impact,” Catchings added.

Memorable seizures from 2009 include women who found more than a kilogram of cocaine during a GPS treasure hunt known as geocaching and man who left more than $100,000 in suspected drug money at the Timber Cove Lodge.

Instead of the bird house the geocaching woman was looking for, she found more than a kilogram of cocaine stashed in a Jameson Irish Whiskey tin near Heavenly Mountain Resort, Catchings said.

The woman brought the cocaine to law enforcement, who staked out the area where the cocaine was found and arrested a mid-level drug dealer a little more than five hours later when he came back for his stash, Catchings said.

The dealer had no idea he hid the cocaine in a location identified as a geocache site online, Catchings said.

In June, a man left a room at Timber Cove Lodge in an apparent hurry, forgetting a steel suitcase filled with stacks of bills worth $128,000.

Employees at the hotel turned the suit case over to police, who determined the accumulation of cash was the result of drug sales, Catchings said.

When the man contacted the hotel about the suit case, employees referred him to police. He never came to recover the lost money and remains a wanted criminal, Catchings said.