Arizona officials broke up an illegal forest party with over 5,000 attendees

• More than 5,000 people gathered together at Tonto National Forest early April for an illegal party.
• Forest officials were patrolling near the area when they found the unauthorized event.
• A permit is required for non-commercial groups of 75 or more to use or occupy forest service land.

Forest protection officers in Arizona broke up an unauthorized and illegal party that gathered more than 5,000 people together at Tonto National Forest last Saturday.

In a Facebook post, the U.S. Forest Service wrote that officials were patrolling near the Lower Sycamore Creek Recreation Area on April 3 when they discovered thousands of people who were gathering illegally.

Officials say campers and partiers restricted access by taping off sections of the main road to designate their camping area and vehicles were parked all along the main roads.

"Two quads colliding -- one person was medevac'd out by helicopter due to the restrictions caused by the partiers," forest service officials said.

Investigators say violations for visitors included DUIs, double riding, speeding/reckless vehicle operation, user-created vehicle staging areas in the burned area, camps blocking roadways, illegal use of fireworks, and target shooting with unknown backstops.

KPHO reported that by the end of the night, there had been seven crashes and multiple reports of stolen off-highway vehicles.

The Tonto National Forest did not immediately respond to Insider's request for additional comment.

According to the agency, a permit is required for non-commercial groups of 75 or more to use or occupy forest service land.