Posted on 08/17/2005 8:27:22 PM PDT by freepatriot32
LaPorte County, IN - About 3,000 to 5,000 marijuana plants, some the size of Christmas trees, have been found about a half mile north of State Road 4 between 600 and 700 East in LaPorte County, just west of Fish Lake.
Officials are calling it the largest outdoor marijuana bust in Indiana since the 1980s.
The plants are growing in three to five clusters, hidden on the ground in a two-acre plot full of trees.
Police discovered the hidden plants over a week ago but it wasnt until yesterday that they decided to bust up the drug ring.
Police say they found several suspects in the field yesterday and arrested 49-year-old Chicago man, Patricio Bautista. He faces federal drug charges.
Several other suspects were able to hide in the marijuana clusters, eluding the authorities. Authorities then found a nearby farmhouse, which they believe is tied to the marijuana growing operation.
Today, when police went back to harvest the marijuana, they discovered the suspects had returned to the field.
First Sgt. Mike Crabtree of the Indiana State Police marijuana team says, We had strong evidence. We already have the evidence that these suspects were armed, in the marijuana plot with 5,000 plants and potentially $10 million worth of marijuana. There was a potential for violence.
Police captured additional suspects Wednesday morning. Their names have not been released.
The suspects in the case will face federal charges.
Marijuana plant removal Heavy equipment had to be brought in to remove the marijuana clusters. After officers cut down the plants, they were carried away by US Coast Guard helicopter and then trucked away by the Indiana State Highway department.
Photo-op
They will be burning it one joint at a time. That way there will be less of an evironmental impact, plus you support the snack food industry.
They were armed? There was a potential for violence? Really? I am so surprised to hear this, you know, with the reputation of cops being so peaceful when they do a weed raid. I'd say the cops are always looking for a fight with this WOD.
"Marijuana plant removal Heavy equipment had to be brought in to remove the marijuana clusters. After officers cut down the plants, they were carried away by US Coast Guard helicopter and then trucked away by the Indiana State Highway department."
That is so ridiculous, I can't even come up with the words to describe it. What an absolute WASTE of resources! Couldn't all these officers, and especially the freakin' Coast Guard, do something more productive? Maybe shift some of that from the WOD to the WOT. There's probably a boat with a nuke on board that was making it ashore, as these morons were air lifting out all the weeds.
Thank you. You wrote my post for me.Time to divert the WOD money to WOT.
They also have a significantly different thermal signature (pot is very hot as it grows) so they stand out quite nicely when viewed through thermal imagers. You also can't hide the signature without obviously hiding the signature. That is, any effort to hide the pot signature looks like someone is trying to hide something which could be enough cause for suspicion for a warrant anyway.
Obviously these were drug pushers and not just recreational users growing their own. Bust them and throw away the key. (or perhaps burn them along with their crop. I'm easy)
In many cases (like this one probably) the war on drugs is the war on terror. Where do the profits from organized drugs go to? What methods do the pushers use to protect their markets? How much intimidation and murder (terrorism) does the drug trade produce.
I'm not in the drug business, so I can't give you a definite answer to where the profits are going, but I'm pretty sure they aren't funding Al Qaeda or any other terrorist group. I'm not sure where you came up with that.
Do you drive an SUV or any passenger car that is contributing to terrorism? Where do the profits from Middle-Eastern oil go?
I'm only trying to point out that your conclusion is way over the top. In any case, this wouldn't even be an issue if the government would get its sticky fingers out of our business. I bet if they made hamburgers illegal, there would be a massive underground market, and you know what? I'd be in line to get my burger fix regardless of what the government says. LOL.
I guess the big distributors of alcohol like Budwesier and Miller are big drug pushers, too. Should their factories be burned to the ground with all their employees, too? They're the biggest, most destructive, drug pushers around you know.
If you're capable of hiding in your marijuana, you've got too much marijuana.
"Why are they spending probably hundreds of thousands of dollars FLYING this stuff out, to just pile it up and burn it somewhere else?"
Because they are not spending their own money. They are spending taxpayer money so they don't care.
"Talk about a waste of money and manpower! The ISP frequently flies around in helicopters this time of year looking for plants. They find several small plots, but rarely ever catch anyone."
Flying helicopters around all day would be a fun job. Wish I had a taxpayer funded job where I wasn't actually expected to produce results but was fun like that.
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