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NotIt
Trad climber
Malaga Cove
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 12, 2009 - 06:40pm PT
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via NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103866520&ft=1&f=1003
All Things Considered, May 12, 2009 · It's common knowledge that marijuana is one of America's biggest cash crops. In 2008, law enforcement confiscated more than 5 million plants in California alone.
What's less known is that much of that pot is grown on public lands. And, increasingly, the covert pot farms are moving into pristine lands — even parks.
Marijuana cultivation has been found in more than a half-dozen national parks on the West Coast; the latest to join the list is North Cascades National Park in northern Washington state, where a farm was raided last summer.
In Yosemite, one of the crown jewels of the national park system, park rangers are constantly searching for new pot farms. Just a few miles from El Capitan and other popular tourist spots, Special Agent Steve Yu and Park Ranger Chris Kuvlesky are sneaking through the ponderosa pine. They're on what they call a "creep": a stealthy hike through an area that's been used in the past by pot growers. They step carefully, because even the snapping of a dry branch could be enough to telegraph their presence to growers who might be hiding in these woods.
Pot farms tend to follow the same rough design: terraces cut into a remote hillside, with some trees and bushes left standing to provide cover from the air. An irrigation hose taps the nearest creek; at one Yosemite pot farm raided in 2007, the hose ran for nearly a mile — buried and camouflaged the whole way. Yu admits he has a grudging respect for the effort that goes into these "gardens."
"I don't know how these guys do it," he says, referring to the growers who live out in these woods all summer, carrying in hundreds of pounds of food, fertilizer and chemicals, and living under tarps. "When we get the handcuffs on them, when we get our hands on them, it feels like these guys are carved out of oak."
A Major Drug Enterprise
Relatively few of the marijuana-tenders are caught. At the first sign of trouble, they usually slip away through the brush. That's the main reason these pot farms are on public land: It's easy to cut and run.
But law enforcement agencies are learning more about these marijuana gardens. For one thing, they're not stand-alone projects. Investigators say pot farms in parks and national forests are often part of larger networks.
A recent Drug Enforcement Administration investigation of a Mexican crime family's alleged crystal methamphetamine ring led agents to discover that the family also had a marijuana-growing operation on the side. They call it a major enterprise; a Seattle-based DEA agent (anonymous here because he works undercover) says it stretched across several Western states.
"They had a plan in place, they had stash houses, they had living places for people and they had people whose role was just to provide food. Each person had their little skill set that they applied to the job, and the leaders never got their hands dirty," the agent says.
The agent says family members — most of them Mexican citizens — drove in from around the country to help with the farms. They moved up the West Coast in a wave, following the spring planting season as it moved north.
The DEA says the family — known as the Barragans — has been known to drug enforcement for decades, both in Los Angeles and in Mexico. Some of the Barragans are now in federal custody near Seattle, awaiting federal trial. Their lawyer would not make them available for comment.
Middle Managers In The Marijuana Ring
Arnold Moorin, the DEA's special agent in charge in Seattle, says the people running these pot farms are just middle managers.
"It's all controlled by the Mexican cartels in Mexico, where the command and control sits," he says.
But other DEA officials are reluctant to use the word "cartel."
Gordon Taylor is the DEA's assistant special agent in charge in Sacramento, and he has years of experience investigating pot farms in California. He says the large-scale farms on public land are run by networks.
"Most of these groups are headed by Mexican nationals that live in the United States illegally," he says.
But he stops short of calling them "cartels."
"When I hear somebody use the term 'drug cartels,' what that means is the identified drug cartels that are operating down in Mexico," Taylor says. "We have not seen direct evidence tying [the marijuana gardens on public lands] to the cartels down in Mexico."
Those who have experience with the pot farms also draw a distinction between the bosses and the workers.
"Most of them are poor people from large families in Michoacan," says Tim Zindel, a federal public defender in Sacramento who has represented many of the garden tenders caught by federal law enforcement. He calls them "disposable workers" — campesinos who sometimes barely know where they are.
A 'Fast-Moving Threat'
Still, their growing presence in the backcountry intimidates people who spend a lot of time there, people like Chris, a graduate student who asked not to share his last name. In 2007, while doing fieldwork in California's Plumas National Forest, he accidentally uncovered a hidden irrigation hose. He looked up and saw an armed man heading his way.
"He held the gun at his side, and he said, 'Come here,' " Chris said.
Chris tried to tell the man he didn't care what the hose was for, but it became clear the man didn't understand much English. Chris remembers him having an "air of malice."
"The fact that he was hiding the gun from me, like he wasn't trying to scare me, like he was trying to get me to go there. I would have preferred if he'd pointed the gun at me," Chris says.
Chris ran, and caught a lucky break when the man lost his footing. Even before his close call, Chris was concerned about the presence of hidden pot farms in the Sierra foothills. He says it even influences where he decides to do fieldwork.
That level of insecurity has not taken hold yet in the national parks. The chief ranger in Yosemite, Steve Shackelton, says he believes his staff is holding the line.
"People coming to Yosemite shouldn't fear this problem. Our job is to ensure that their visit is a safe visit, and we will ensure that. We do ensure that," he says.
At the same time, he's worried. In the national forest next to Yosemite, the pot farms have become almost commonplace. He has seen the effects over there — erosion, pesticides, garbage dumps — and he considers the pot farms a "fast-moving threat" to one of America's most beloved national parks.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 12, 2009 - 06:58pm PT
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There was a bust and cleanup at the FaceLift, or the one before - somewhere on 140?
Hopefully no one will tell the NPS what's really going on Lay Lady Ledge.
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rincon
Trad climber
SoCal
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May 12, 2009 - 07:12pm PT
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If the sh#t was legal, the problem would go away by itself.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Arid-zona
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May 12, 2009 - 07:16pm PT
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Pot legal? Yeah right. We'll have a black President before they legalize oh wai.....
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nasdy
climber
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May 12, 2009 - 07:45pm PT
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hello buddy i read your comment it's great i like it dear i learn alot of things from your comment dear thanx for this information
==
Brock Lesner
Alaska Drug Rehab Centers and Programs-Alaska Drug Rehab Centers and Programs
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mdavid
Big Wall climber
CA, CO, TX
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May 12, 2009 - 09:54pm PT
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Looks like they are using the mexican national stance to make the "threat" seem very dangerous and scary. Kind of odd considering our president smoked pot and did coke....but then again i suppose he should have been jailed just like the millions who are having their lives and contributions wasted in jail.
Face replacement surgery women = husband in jail for 7 years for blowing her face off.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=201&sid=5106120
Local gentlemen caught with coke = jail for 40 years
*edit note* sorry, wasn't hispanic/mexican or normal category for texas leo harassment, just poor, the real discriminated group...
http://www.newswest9.com/Global/story.asp?S=10343338
oh that makes sense
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GhoulweJ
Trad climber
Sacramento, CA
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May 12, 2009 - 10:51pm PT
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wait.
If we legalize it, it will be taxed, regulated and expensive
We will also have to send money to mexico etc to replace the lost income... I do not think we can afford to legalize it.
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GhoulweJ
Trad climber
Sacramento, CA
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May 12, 2009 - 11:02pm PT
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Legal comes with regulations... wait, i have a friend with a still...
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rich sims
Trad climber
co
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May 13, 2009 - 12:26am PT
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Hike in before spring rains
Dig pit install small/ medium blow up kids pool
When stream are up fill pool.
Plant corn (or crop of choice)
Install drip irrigation, small aquarium pump, Timer and Motor cycle battery for power.
Come back at proper time to harvest corn.
I am just saying you could do it I think,,, maybe.
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WBraun
climber
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May 13, 2009 - 12:33am PT
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See ... there ya go.
Except plant the corn in your back yard carrots and other vegetables too.
It can solve some food problem for many. No, in America they grow worthless grass in front of the house and in the back yard too. Worthless trees that bare no fruit also.
Then they stand in the grass with beer and and look out into space.
America .....
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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May 13, 2009 - 12:36am PT
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Yup...
Yup...
Yup...
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GDavis
Trad climber
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May 13, 2009 - 01:06am PT
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HAHAHA that internet bot was signed Brock Lesner? Man has MMA grown...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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May 13, 2009 - 02:51am PT
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I've heard it is worse in Sequoia. It was pretty bad in the San Gabriels back in the late 90's but the DEA pretty well ran 'em off with the use of a Blackhawk with IR. What the Sierra foothills needs is a Predator with IR.
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Delhi Dog
Trad climber
Good Question...
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May 13, 2009 - 03:56am PT
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"Legalize it, don't regulate it. If you regulate it we're f*#ked, as with alcohol. Can't own a still, can you? We won't be able to grow our own."
Actually you can make your own(booze)but with some parameters...
Locker, you are right about the trees but I think WB is suggesting trees that bare fruit. He ain't no dummy...and neither are you:>)
Shade, O2, wildlife habitat, beauty,...etc
Hopefully we'll move back to those days when food was raised instead of lawns...
Our school is beginning to grown veggies in some of the open areas of the grounds for our cafeteria...cool idea!
Cheers,
DD
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Radish
Trad climber
Seki, California
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May 13, 2009 - 10:46am PT
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Was riding the bike up in Seqouia yesterday and watching the Helis and big C130 doing pot checks. Sequoia is the worst area for farms. I work there in fire and "every" water source has a garden somewhere. You'd never know someone was in the hills around you though, they rarely catch anyone, even with all the sophisticated high tech stuff. They go in holes or have quick escape routes. Once in awhile you see mexican nationals walking on remote roads such as Mineral King, they ain't backpacking! I wouldn't go off road down in the foothills now. All said there hasn't been a gun to gun confrontation yet.........
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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May 13, 2009 - 10:59am PT
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"CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Production - state of CA) narcs were said to be posing as geologists when they roamed the wild country. A geology graduate student from the Univ. of Texas, doing field work in the northern Coast Ranges, had been murdered... A man in the Ca. Div. of Mines and Geology whose work frequently takes him into the Sierra foothills goes into every bar in every old mining camp and forest hamlet within a radius of 5 or 10 miles and tells everyone present what he is doing and where. Out in the crops and outcrops, when he encounters people they know about him."
John McPhee in Assembling California (1993)
Well, at least it gives us geologists yet another reason to drink beer!
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Phil1465
Trad climber
Brooklyn
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May 13, 2009 - 11:11am PT
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The only thing the drug laws do is… provide a cash flow to cartels, gangs, dealers to buy guns, noting more.
I have never known anyone who decided not to take because they were illegal. And I’m including herion, cocane, crack, meth, steriods, HG, dope… whatever the posion is doesn’t matter
The drug laws keep the gangs employeed, fully funded and armed to the teeth
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 13, 2009 - 01:07pm PT
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Carrying on from DMT's story, a friend (a SuperTopian) is quite a keen gardener. A weed farmer, anyway. She lives on a busy street near a high school, and people were always stealing her flowers and things. So she made up some genuine looking signs with the "poison" symbol and so on, which say something like "Warning!! Area recently sprayed with dihydrogen oxide."
It's entirely true - she waters her plants most days.
I suggested that if that didn't work, she could try a variation: "Warning!! Plants irradiated by nuclear radiation". Also quite true - there are cosmic rays coming from the sky all the time. Except that entitled yuppies would probably flip out at the radiation bit, and her garden would be cleared by hazmat teams.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Redlands
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May 13, 2009 - 01:26pm PT
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Phil1465 wrote:"The drug laws keep the gangs employeed, fully funded and armed to the teeth"
Substitute "police forces and paramilitary industrial complex" for "gangs" and the statement is still true.
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