Manhunt in Fort Bragg, California, for ex-con drug farmer Aaron Bassler who shot councilman

Heavily armed cops in northe Califoia are hunting for an ex-con suspected of killing a small town official who discovered his drug farm hidden in a remote forest.

Jere Melo, a former mayor of the city of Fort Bragg and a longtime member of its city council, was shot to death Saturday moing in a rugged area near the Noyo River, east of the city, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office said.

Melo, 69, worked for a timber company, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

At the time of his death, he and another man were checking out a report that someone was living and growing marijuana among the area's giant redwood trees, officials said.

When they found a hidden drug farm, someone who was guarding the area "jumped up and opened fire," Fort Bragg Mayor Dave Tuer said.

Melo was fatally wounded, but his partner escaped and called police on his cell phone, Tuer said.

Cops responded to the scene and found Melo's body, but the gunman was long gone.

 Jere Melo, 69, a city councilman in Fort Bragg, Calif., was shot and killed after he discovered a hidden drug-growing operation in a forest just east of the city, police said.

On Sunday, police said they were using SWAT teams to hunt for Aaron Bassler, a local drifter with a history of run-ins with the law.

It wasn't clear what kind of drugs Bassler was allegedly growing in the area. Some reports said it was marijuana, while others said it was opium poppy.

Tuer said Bassler, who is in his 30s, "has had some skirmishes with police over the years," including a collar earlier this year for crashing a truck into a school's tennis courts.

In 2009, he was arrested for sparking bomb fears by ditching packages at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The packages contained drawings of red stars and ramblings about alien armies and Chinese weapons, the paper reported.

Melo moved to Fort Bragg in 1966 to work as a forester and was first elected to the city council in 1996.

Tuer praised him as a hard-working council member who "brought civility to the council."

"You can't tu anywhere in the city and not see what Jere's done for us," Tuer told the Chronicle. "We can't even fathom all the ways we're going to miss him."

Fort Bragg, which has a population of 7,300, is about 160 miles north of San Francisco.