TOPEKA – A man who was recruited in Mexico to tend a marijuana grow operation in Kansas was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison.

42-year-old Marcelo Parra-Ocmo, a citizen of Mexico, who was in the United States illegally, pleaded guilty to cultivating more than 6,000 marijuana plants.

In his plea, he admitted the facts of the case show that in February 2011 law enforcement officers first noticed the site, which appeared to have been abandoned for the winter months. It bore signs of cultivation, including hand-dug wells, hidden tools and equipment and the residue of marijuana that was harvested.

An overflight in May 2011 revealed that cultivation had resumed. The tree cover had been thinned and mounds of dirt had been established with vegetation growing from them. On June 16, 2011, agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Osage County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies raided the site, where they arrested Parra-Ocmo, co-defendant Ernest Duenas-Aceon and Parra-Ocmo’s minor son, who was a high school student.

Investigators learned Parra-Ocmo was a citizen of Mexico, where he was recruited to enter the United States illegally and to grow marijuana.

Co-defendant Ernesto Duenas-Aceon is set for sentencing Jan. 23.