I took a class from a guy who was on a National Park Service SWAT type unit — had some hair raising stories about firefights with pot growers, most of whom are gang-affiliated illegals apparently. So tracking down illegals and swooping on on pot fields are frequently intertwined.
“... had some hair raising stories about firefights with pot growers, most of whom are gang-affiliated illegals apparently”
I got roasted a few months back (on this very website) for even suggesting that legal pot growing in California was going to become overtaken by organized crime and gangs. According to the roaster everything was copacetic and I didn’t know what I was talking about.
Having been technically contracted with law enforcement agencies for decades, what blatantly happens time and again is (simply put) - Human nature. Which is very predictable. Where a vacuum exists, or where there is a weakness that can be exploited with profit to be made in Vice or in intoxicants - organized crime will be there and they will enact hostile takeovers whenever possible or plausible.
Just as... freeloaders will suddenly appear in areas where marijuana (for example) is legalized because they can get a high without the hassles of breaking the law. There are many instances right now in Colorado (for example) of towns that are being overtaken by vagrants, and bums who are there for solely the high. That is human nature which is as I stated, very predictable.
If you want a quick read on human nature and law, I highly recommend the first few chapters in Bastiat’ “The Law” it’s a perfect example of why there is a need for law. It comes down to making it more painful to commit a crime and be caught then if you didn’t have a law which would punish. Why? Human Nature. Human nature is lazy... it is easier to steal or deal, than it is to physically labor. So humans will often take the path of least resistance. Hence the need for law.
By-passing law(s) by previous administrations was also the path of least resistance hence the propensity to even go there.
It is an interesting topic.
Search for Bastait, The Law. It is online, and it is free.