Posted on 08/29/2009 12:48:59 PM PDT by AuntB
The Drug Enforcement Administration Friday announced that it found 14,500 marijuana plants growing in a Colorado national park, authorities say are linked to Mexican drug cartels...... they have seen an increase in outdoor marijuana operations run by Mexican drug cartels.
In the most recent Colorado case, the marijuana was found in "the remote, rugged terrain" of Pike National Forest, which is about 60 miles southwest of Denver.
"The persons who were involved in this criminal activity had no regard for the damage caused to the forest and environment by the waste they left behind," said Jeffrey D. Sweetin, special agent in charge of the DEA's Denver office. "The public's safety is also at risk for those who recreate on our public lands due to these trafficking groups operating there."
DEA said Mexican migrant workers had been recruited to work at the site and harvest plants.
Mr. Sweetin said growing marijuana on public land in the United States has become attractive to drug cartels ......outdoor operations can be set up for relatively little money.
Authorities are concerned about the legal ramifications of such sites and the environmental consequences, which, they say, are severe..... these include "damage to the lands due to clearing the areas to prepare the garden site, trash left behind, chemicals used to grow the crop [seeping] into the watershed, and the public-safety issues associated with the recreating public coming in contact with these organizations ....."
In a statement (about the LaBrea 88,000 acre fire), the Forest Service said the blaze was sparked by a "cooking fire in a marijuana drug-trafficking operation ... believed to be run by a Mexican national drug organization.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Note from Mike Cutler about this article:
Hi Gang:
I have attached a news article that appears in today's edition of the Washington Times and details the issue of the use of our nation's national parks by members of the pernicious Mexican drug cartels to grow tens of millions of dollars worth of marijuana to be sold on the streets of cities and towns across our nation.
Our national parks are a national treasure that is being defiled by thugs who are illegally present in our country.
As was noted by Jefferey D. Sweetin, the DEA Special Agent-in-Charge of that agency's office in Denver, Colorado, the presence of these gang members in these parks not only represent a serious violation of law and represent a threat to the environment, but also represent a serious threat to the safety of visitors to the park.
Generally individuals who are involved in the drug trade are heavily armed and are more than willing to resort to extreme violence to protect their drugs and money. This is clearly apparent in considering that at present, the Drug cartels operating in Mexico at the present kill an average of more than 500 people each and every month in a thus far successful effort to control their turf and their means of amassing billions of dollars in profits from the drug trade.
The article focused on the efforts by the U.S. Park Police and the DEA but virtually nothing was said about the role of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) personnel in combatting this invasion of our nation in general by criminal aliens and national parks specifically, where the cultivation of marijuana plants are concerned.
Each and every day our citizens' lives and safety are put at risk by criminals whose mere presence in our country is a violation of law. Each and every day our nation's security is compromised by aliens who have no lawful right to be in our country.
Yet there are only about 5,500 ICE special agents working for our federal government across this nation and only a portion of those agents are assigned to enforcing the immigration laws while other ICE special agents are enforcing customs laws which have nothing to do with the immigration statutes.
To put this in perspective, the New York City Police Department has some 37,000 police officers who have the resources they need to not only arrest criminals but to act proactively to prevent crime. New York is ranked as the safest big city in the United States and, perhaps, throughout the world. Imagine what would happen if the NYPD had as few police officers as ICE has special agents! I can assure you that New York City's streets would be far from safe!
It is the lack of agents and resources that have made the United States a magnate for millions of illegal aliens and hundreds of thousands of criminal aliens.
Yet the best most of our politicians can offer is the promise to provide health care and even lawful status to millions of illegal aliens whose true identities, backgrounds, affiliations and intentions are unknown and unknowable!
I can only think of one word that accurate describes this lunacy- proposing free health care and lawful status to millions of illegal aliens by our politicians. That word is BETRAYAL!
I have often been asked about compassion and my position on illegal immigration.
Here is my response:
First of all, the United States is a nation of extremely limited resources. The current economic crisis should make this all too clear! Consider what illegal immigration has done to the state of California.
Next consider that at present, according to the United Nations, over one billion people living on our planet do not have access to safe drinking water or an adequate supply of food. That is poverty on a terrible scale. Clearly, considering the limitations of our nation, it is impossible to think that we could simply throw open our nation's doors to a billion poverty stricken people.
In one of his "Dirty Harry" films, Clint Eastwood famously remarked, "A man has got to know his limitations!" The same could certainly be said of a country.
The point is that I am not without compassion. First and foremost, I have compassion for my fellow Americans who are losing their jobs and their homes. I have compassion for my fellow Americans whose tenuous grip on their share of the American dream is evaporating.
Certainly I feel bad about the plight of those who live in poverty in their home countries. I understand that many of those who take the risks to enter our country are often desperate. The problem is that because of their desperation they are easy to exploit. As an INS special agent I often saw, up close and in person, how eager unscrupulous employers were to exploit and take advantage of these people. These employers would fire American citizens and lawful immigrants and replace them with illegal aliens who were often paid only a fraction of wages that the lawful workers had been paid. They worked under substandard conditions under abusive circumstances.
The large numbers of illegal aliens provided the criminal aliens with communities in which the bad guys could easily hide in plain sight or, in the parlance of the 9/11 Commission, "embed" themselves in communities around our country.
It is worth noting that the news article I attached below stated that none of those involved with the marijuana crops implicated in the fires have, as yet, been arrested. The criminal aliens have a means of escape that American criminals don't enjoy. Alien criminals can easily leave the United States when they know that they are being sought and head for the safety of their home countries where they are all but guaranteed that they will be safe from criminal prosecution. That is why I believe it is important to think of this alien criminals as being "transnationals."
They are able to vanish across our nation's borders as easily as they ran our nation's borders in the first place, giving them an additional sense of impunity.
In other words....it was "far out."
The Mexicans wouldn’t be here if pot were legal.../s
I am sorry but that is really a stupid statement. These people are thugs......come on, I mean really.
I would venture to say that just about every large State and National park has pot gardens.....
just sayin ;-)
“The Mexicans wouldn’t be here if pot were legal.../s”
Yes, they would still be here, but they wouldn’t be growing weed, just smuggling humans, living on social services, killing hundreds of Americans every year. Since Mexico has legalized possession, everyone crossing that border will have drugs.
They’ve let this insanity go on so long now, that I fear we will also have to decriminalize possession.
And a warning issued by some government agency was derided by an hispanic-rights group as “profiling”.
That’s actually so. People who wanted it would grow in their own back yards or flower pots.
They have to talk like good greenies.
Did they happen across any illegal wheat farms while they were out there? Outlaw corn farms? Perhaps an illicit broccoli patch or two? I wonder why we never hear about people planting those crops illegally in national forests.
I've camped in Pike National Forest. I've had tortillas and played Mexican music while camping there, and drank Corona (but not Tecate) - about 2 1/2 of the three profile points provided.
Stay tuned for “Vegetable Vigilantes” !!!
Perhaps they need to issue Tags for potfarmers and allow some man hunting in the woods. The deer hunters could get in shape and live range time before the season.
Last I heard, wheat & corn & broccoli weren’t illegal. You must be part of the pro-pot contingent we have here.
I spend many weekends on the border of the Pike Nat’l forest. (last weekend for instance)
Guess I’ll continue to pack protection in case of “wild life”.
Actually it is illegal in a National Park. So is pot!
Clever way to get around the hardest part of the drug business....getting it into the US.
We just smiled and waved/Sittin’ on that sack of seeds.
The warning was so stupidly worded that it could apply to anyone who spoke Spanish out for a weekend camping trip. In northern New Mexico that is about one-half of the LEGAL population. I'm not a fan of illegal immigrants, not by a long shot. But in this case I have to agree with the charge of profiling. It threw away the barrel for a few bad apples. Use common sense when in the back country, folks. And if you run into any of these types, it might just be a good idea to be armed and be able to use it.
Item: Drug prohibition is funding the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Item: In Colombia, the FARC is funded by drug prohibition as is Evo Morales in Bolivia. They join with Hugo Chavez to threaten our interests in South America.
Item: Mexico, especially in the north along the border, has turned into a lawless violent failed state due to the drug cartels and has spilled over into the US.
Item: US, the MS-13 and other violent gangs funded by drug prohibition and threatens our southern tier of states.
When is enough, enough?
The “national security conservatives” who support the drug war aren’t conservative at all.
If anything we should continue to kick and mock those who are so stupid as to support such an expensive useless endeavorer.
Conservative is not the word I’d use to describe them. Authoratarian jackass is what I use to describe supporters of the drug war. Conservatives they are not
That's not a National Park that is a National Forest. Two separate agencies of the FedGov. Just sayin'.
"...and the public-safety issues associated with the recreating public coming in contact with these organizations while they're operating on our national lands."
If it was a National Park we can thank Congress for not allowing citizens to carry arms in them.
One minor point to the author. Pike National FOREST does not contain any National Parks (There is Florissant Nat’l Monument - not where this stuff was found). A National Forest is not the same as National Park.
Anthropogenic Global Warming is causing the pine beetles to kill those trees. Can’t you see it? /s
I am going elk hunting in about seven weeks and hope I don't run into these thugs as it will be about harvest time. At least we will be armed.
Hah! Next you'll be telling me that broccoli dealers don't shoot each other in turf wars.
I have a question - have you ever had to deal directly with a crackhead or a heroin junkie in your life?
Not a trick question - I think pot should be legalized, but I have serious problems with legalizing 'hard' drugs.
Please demonstrate how pot is more harmful than alcohol. Also please note my previous post where I challenged a poster calling for blanket drug legalization.
Blanket laws historically are stupid. Let's look at each drug compartively.
The fact is that silly marijuana laws are bringing these Mexican gangsters into the United States. (/s is not applicable)
Ever deal with a serious alcoholic? Not much difference really except junkies and crackheads have to associate with some pretty unsavory characters to get their fix whereas the alcoholic can buy his fix from the corner store. As far as the damage and pain they cause themselves and those around them, not much difference at all.
Yeah, I've had to deal with alcoholics.
And they were mild compared to crackheads and methheads that I've know.
So tell me - have YOU ever had to deal with crackheads and/or methheads?
Yes I have and I've dealt with some pretty hardcore alcoholics. The alcoholic who loses his job and winds up in the hospital after a days long drinking binge isn't a whole lot different from the crackhead or methhead who does the same. Heroin junkies, on the other hand, can function surprisingly well, keeping their addiction hidden until the withdrawal symptoms kick in.
I've known plenty of functional alcoholics. I've met plenty of pot smokers who have no problem holding a job.
I know of maybe one crackhead who can hold a job, but she's still a vicious psycho who has stolen in the past. Methheads? Furgetaboutit.
So, like I said - a blanket call for drug legalization is stupid. Some drugs just cross a certain threshhold on their own. Pot should be legalized or at least decriminalized. Heroin needs to stay criminalized but with a lot of leeway regarding sentencing. Cocaine and meth need to have sentencing guidelines with a big honkin' stick available for posession - to let those around the perp testify as to how much of a problem that person has become.
Mandatory maximums are stupid, too. Judges need some leeway to filter out the major problem cases. But you cannot take away that lever.
Drugs are illegal and you’re confronted with junkie crackhead. Obviously, making drugs illegal didn’t provide protection. I actually think taking the illegality away from the drug trade will reduce the incentives for violence. Most of the violence is related to the illegality of the trade, not to any effect of drugs, hard or soft.
If the ultimate goal is reducing usage and not punishment, and rehab works in the same percentage regardless of voluntary or involuntary admission, why not make that the sentence?
“I can’t remember busts of this size and number in the past related to the Mexican cartels.”
It’s been going on for years, it’s just been kept under the MSM radar. Check these photos of cartel camps from 2005 & 2006.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+lou+dobbs
The TERRY ANDERSON SHOW..
Terry is Articulating the Popular Rage!
Sundays - 12-1 AM EDT, 11-12 PM CDT, 10-11 PM MDT, 9-10 PM PDT
KRLA - 870 AM - Los Angeles — KDWN - 720 - Las Vegas — KFNX - 1100 - Phoenix
“Stupid People of America !!!
If You Ain’t Mad, You Ain’t Payin’ Attention!”
Call-In Number - (866) 870-5752
The Most Horriblest Clown of the Week for Terry’s August 23, 2009 Show......
San Francisco County Supervisor David Campos..He supports sanctuary for criminal invaders
Which illegal alien enabling traitor will be crowned the clown on tonight’s show ???
Don’t miss Terry’s show, tonight...
Terry says that the illegal aliens should not be in the USA...
Whatcha think about that ??? Agree ??? Disagree ???
Want to take a few home to your house and feed and educate them yourself ???
You would get Soetoro’s DeathCare...
Illegal aliens get Soetoro’s HealthCare...
Why are Americans left out in the cold ????
Agree that you should pay their HealthCare while your Momma is neglected ??? Disagree ???
Call Terry LIVE tonight, Sunday, 9-10 PM PST at (866) 870-5752
LIVE stream at http://krla870.townhall.com/
http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=listenliv
Agreed. I was in Pike NF just last week, riding a mountain bike all over it. Destroyed many plants under my wheel as I off-roaded it on the slopes of Squaretop Mountain, just off guenella Pass.
I could not have done that legally in a National Park.
Ironically, I did smoke pot at my highest point in elevation, as is an old habit of mine. I got to about 12,600 ft before I turned around.
And no, I did no see anyone eating tortillas or listening to Mexican music.
End the failed drug war.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.