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I had the privilege of experiencing a Forest Service SWAT team back in 1988 over some mining claims. They could have resolved the problem with a letter or a visit by one Ranger with a clipboard, instead of 27 men with automatic weapons. But they chose to do it the other way, costing the Taxpayers millions, and me my respect for the Federal government.

Here's the sequence:

(1) Forest Service says "There are armed drug dealers in the forest growing pot. We need our own SWAT teams to go after them".

(2) Forest Service SWAT teams are formed, trained, and get premium pay.

(3) SWAT team members say "You know, if we actually go after drug gang members, they WILL find where we live and come kill us in the night".

(4) Management says "Hey, why are you guys just sitting around? This doesn't look productive!".

(5) SWAT team decides to raid you. YOU are SAFE to screw with.

Exactly what happened. They sent their elite Pot-SWAT team, including the head guy of their whole drug enforcement arm out of DC to go after us.

Maybe my military background had them worried, but really, if they had sent me a letter of concern, I'd have been glad to work at resolving the issue.

The funny part is, even with a platoon of SWAT, they never even contacted, much less confronted me directly. After they arrested one of my partners for 'trespassing on government lands' and raided a few of our customers (we were mining gemstones) and had big 'puff pieces' of their heroics in the local-national media about what desperadoes they had on the run, we let the lawyers work it out.