Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forests

[SUBMAN1]

Nice

-S


Authorities uncovered more than $1 billion worth of pot plants in Sequoia National Forest this week.

SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, California (CNN) -- Beyond the towering trees that have stood here for thousands of years, an intense drug war is being waged.

Illegal immigrants connected to Mexico's drug cartels are growing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marijuana in the heart of one of America's national treasures, authorities say. It's a booming business that, federal officials say, feeds Mexico's most violent drug traffickers.


"These aren't Cheech and Chong plants," said John Walters, director of the National Drug Control Policy. "People who farm now are not doing this for laughs, despite the fact Hollywood still thinks that. They're doing it to make a lot of money."


Walters spoke from a "marijuana garden" tucked deep into the Sequoia National Forest, a two- to four-hour hike from the nearest road, far removed from the giant sequoias the region is best known for.


Ten thousand marijuana plants, some 5 feet tall, dotted the mountainside's steep terrain amid thick brush, often near streams. This garden's street value is an estimated $40 million, authorities said.


Walters clutched three plants he said were worth $12,000 on the streets.
"This is about serious criminal organizations," Walters said. "They're willing to kill anybody who gets in their way. They're taking money back to those who kill prosecutors, judges and law enforcement."



Over the past eight days, a federal, state and county law enforcement initiative called Operation LOCCUST has eradicated 420,000 marijuana plants here worth more than $1 billion on the street. By comparison, authorities eradicated 330,000 plants over the six-month growing season last month, said Lt. Mike Boudreaux of the Tulare County Sheriff's Department.


Authorities have arrested 38 people and seized 29 automatic weapons, high-powered rifles and other guns, Boudreaux said.

For years, Mexican drug cartels have used the remote forest to conduct and conceal their business. But the pot production has intensified because it has become harder and harder to smuggle marijuana across the U.S.-Mexico border, Walters said.


"They come into our own national parks and risk the lives of sheriffs and others," Walters said.



Watch Mexican pot farms in U.S. forest »


Sequoia National Forest is more than 350 miles from the border, named in honor of its 38 groves of giant sequoia trees dating back thousands of years. The forest covers 1.2 million acres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.


Some of the workers have established residency in the United States, Boudreaux said. Most are in the country illegally, he said, many brought for the sole purpose of growing pot, maintaining production and protecting the camp.


"They're using family or very trusted family friends. They don't just use anybody," he said.


Authorities arrested nine people in one bust recently, all of them brothers or cousins ranging in age from 20 to 27, Boudreaux said.


Boudreaux described a sophisticated web in which workers and supplies are delivered to the camps by separate groups of people who don't know all the details about the marijuana operation.


"You're recruited in for that purpose as long as you're trusted. ... Each person has his function."


Once at the national forest, the growers carry with them everything they need: tents, food, guns, fertilizer, irrigation hose and marijuana seeds. Armed men keep watch over the gardens day and night during planting season, officials say.


They dam mountain creeks to create pools and then siphon the water into miles of gravity-fed hoses that lead to smaller tubing to irrigate the plants. Nearly all of the marijuana plants have individual drip lines.


"The people that are growing this are good at what they do," said
Boudreaux.


The battle is being waged by a coalition of local, state and federal agencies. They rip up and remove the intricate irrigation systems, eradicate the plants and develop intelligence on the workers.


"The goal is not just to eradicate the plants but to go after the organizations," Walters said.


What's different this year from years past, officials say, is that they're working to destroy the entire infrastructure of the marijuana grown in this region, from the irrigation systems to capturing the growers to ripping up the plants. And they're trying to get at the heart of the cartels.


Walters said they have a "unique relationship" with Mexican law enforcement to go after organized crime -- that they will take names of those arrested here and try to work back to the crime families.


"In the past, all we've been able to do is what we call 'whack and stack,' " said Bill Wittman, sheriff of Tulare County.


Wittman says he has had "well over 200 people in the field every day" eradicating the plants and removing the irrigation systems as part of the operation.


"We're not just pulling the plants, we're targeting mid-level and upper-management of these trafficking organizations," Boudreaux said.


How do they find the gardens in such remote areas? They use aerial surveillance, human intelligence and other means. "Often times, we have people who will lead us to these gardens," Boudreaux said.


Allen Ishida, a member of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, said the illegal activity is alarming.


"I want to state that the guys growing the marijuana are not the guys I went to college with," he said. "These are organized drug cartels out of Mexico."


Boudreaux says authorities are furious that cartels are operating in a U.S. forest.


"It's something that's troubling for many of us in law enforcement," he said.

"You have illegal criminal activity in the mountain regions not only destroying the natural beauty of the landscape but as well as the potential for this product to reach the children of this community."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/08/...ion/index.html

[Sailor Steve]

It's amazing how this horrible insidious thing just grows. With a little help, or even all by itself. Horrible.

Of course if they let people grow their own that evil farm would be worth exactly nothing.

[August]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

It's amazing how this horrible insidious thing just grows. With a little help, or even all by itself. Horrible.

Of course if they let people grow their own that evil farm would be worth exactly nothing.

Ding, ding we have a winner!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by August

Ding, ding we have a winner!

Would probably be worth something to the US government though....through taxation. :hmm:

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

It's amazing how this horrible insidious thing just grows. With a little help, or even all by itself. Horrible.

Of course if they let people grow their own that evil farm would be worth exactly nothing.

A rare instance of someone who understands economics to some degree.

[SUBMAN1]

I personally have never used, but I also do not see a problem with pot. It should not be illegal given its properties. It is only illegal because 1 and only 1 man (a lawyer no less) got hooked on it 100 + years ago and this one man has made it illegal for the world ever since because he couldn't control himself. Well, this is one angle. You also had the crazed guy trying to control it all himself back in the 30's.

Given its properties, Alcohol should also be illegal if examined in the same way. I've yet to see a violent pot smoker!

What I truely find disturbing though is that medical reasons for having should 'never' be denied. That is just plain wrong.

-S

[Radioshow]

Marijuana is not worse than alcohol, and alcohol causes more problems from drunk driving and the violent behavior it often causes. Just go to a bar downtown on a friday night to see that.
I smoke a fair amount myself and have never seen any real problems from it. Now it may not be good for your lungs of course but cigarettes aren't illegal. It is somewhat addictive but i don't go selling stuff for it like crackheads do. I have my 3.5 grams a week maybe and I'm fine. Cheaper than beer for me, as it lasts longer. $30 for my weed or $30+ for a 24 of beer that will make me fat and a lush. I like a beer now and then but weed relaxes and calms. You cant condemn marijuana without condemning alcohol or coffee for that matter. Tim Horton's has a monopoly on addiction with its coffee. There are more Tim Hortons coffee cups littered on the ground than any other garbage.
I am not stupid or unintelligent just because I smoke weed and I am not evil either,(not that anyone said so) but if you drink or smoke you cannot say anything bad about marijuana.
Hell if the government would tax it they would make a killing and save millions as well from locking up all those evil pot smokers.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Radioshow

Marijuana is not worse than alcohol.

Forgive me for reducing your argument to one sentence, but the consensus seems to be that we all agree with you.

I could go on and on and on with the reasons marijuana, and in my view, all other drugs should be legalized, but I dont feel like making everyone else scroll past a half-page of text right now.

IMO you are right, though.

Also I think you will find that few would consider pot "evil" or any synonym thereof.

Hell if the government would tax it they would make a killing and save millions as well from locking up all those evil pot smokers.

Once again, spot on.

[Jimbuna]

Whilst I agree with most of the statements, I can categorically state that I have come across a few violent pot smokers....granted, they were probably in this frame of mind prior to becoming 'under the influence' but the end result was a person who was induced into the belief that there would be little or no consequences for their subsequent actions.

One of the numerous concerns when using 'banned substances' in the uk has to be the environment in which said substance is taken.

An example would be whilst in charge of a vehicle or a vulnerable person.

Comparing alcohol and tobacco in the same light is IMHO a valid point.

If pot or whatever you want to call it is to be legalised, then tight control measures as to it's use would need to be thought out in advance.

[nikimcbee]

Yeah, it's alittle scary camping or hiking in some of these areas. They area guarded and they are booby-trapped. No joke. Don't walk down the wrong trail, you may get a surprise.

!. undergound meth bunkers
2. A cop I talked to said there were so many pot fields that they can't keep track of them all.

[Frame57]

I have run across this situation in the Mendocino National Forest. Fish and game know where these are and get bribed. I just steered clear and continued my hunt. If I ever would get confronted I would relish returning fire on them. Win, lose or draw it would a hell of a hunt.