Alligators found at scene of suspected drug shooting (Washington State)

KOMO TV ^ | November 27, 2012 | KOMO staff

[Stoat]

Note to out-of-towners: Alligators are not native to Washington State.  They're more commonly found in Florida, Louisiana and in Congress.

[Stoat]

Would you happen to know who is managing the "my pitbull wasn't aggressive enough to protect my pot operation so I replaced him with gators" pinglist? 

[ottbmare]

Alligators! That explains everything!

[stuartcr]

Can’t imagine they are much protection in the winter.

[dirtboy]

The sheriff's office is working with county Animal Services to determine what will happen to the alligators.

[Stoat]

Can’t imagine they are much protection in the winter.

 

These indoor pot growing operations use special lighting systems (and LOTS of electricity...which is one of the ways they are caught) which keeps the area pretty warm.  The temperature inside the growing area may be fairly normal to a gator and he may not slow down too much. 

Just guessing though..I'm no gator expert.

[Stoat]

hehe! Nice! I’m guessing they’ll probably either give them to a local zoo or send them to an out of State facility located in a region that has a lot of gators.

[Chickensoup]

hehe! Nice! I’m guessing they’ll probably either give them to a local zoo or send them to an out of State facility located in a region that has a lot of gators.
_____________________

why bother? Shoot them and bury them. They are not endangered, why burden the taxpayer?

[stuartcr]

Don’t they need large bodies of water?

[Stoat]

UPDATE:  A better article including a video report is available here:

 

http://www.king5.com/news/cities/olympia/Alligators-used-to-protect-Olympia-marijuana-grow-180998051.html

[Baynative]

WA Ping

[stuartcr]

Tasty too

[Stoat]

That’s what I would do, but this is hard-Left, touchy-feely Western Washington where the protection of spotted owl habitats destroyed one of the State’s primary industries and caused numerous suicides of loggers who had been thrown out of work. They care more about animals than people around here.

“sigh”

[Stoat]

I understand that gators prefer that, but the zoos around here keep them in indoor ponds. I’m guessing that the welfare of the animals was most likely not the highest thing on the list of priorities for this criminal owner.

[Ken H]

What a croc!

[bgill]

A couple years ago there were articles warning tourists not to wander too far into the national forests in Washington because of the marijuana farms run by illegals.

[Stoat]

A couple years ago there were articles warning tourists not to wander too far into the national forests in Washington because of the marijuana farms run by illegals.

 

I'm sure you're right...I had been under the impression that the outdoor 'farms' were more popular in Californian forests due to the warmer weather there, while the indoor operations are more popular here due to the cold and rain but I have no doubt that some people....including illegals....are trying outdoor pot operations as well, as you say.   I'm not in Law Enforcement and so I don't have an exact perspective on that.

I believe that there's a lot of meth lab activity in the national forests around here as well. 

[SWAMPSNIPER]

5 footers are still bath tub toys!

[USNBandit]

It's not nearly the problem that it is in California, but one does have to be careful. Even before the Mexicans started taking over the out door MJ industry those gardens were often protected by booby-traps.

I would say as a percentage threat that running into the byproduct of Mexican trafficking in town is much higher in Washington State. They have taken over the cocaine, meth and heroin trafficking all the way up to the Canadian border.

[bgill]

IIRC, some of the warnings for Washington and Oregon were from the same KOMO as this thread. The articles came out about the same time as that little boy, Kyron, was kidnapped... something about drugs and some guy who might have been connected to the stepmom... don’t remember the whole thing. That was one strange case. Never solved. LE and community were so focused on the mom that the real kidnapper may never be known. I’m about 60-40 that someone else did it.