Posted on 06/25/2008 9:47:24 AM PDT by AuntB
Authorities say it's the biggest pot bust in Cocke County in the last five years, maybe more.
Around 10 a.m. Monday, helicopter pilots spotted hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants growing in the Cherokee National Forest in Cocke County.
They alerted officers on the ground, and the crew trekked more than a mile into the forest from Interstate 40, where they came upon what they call a DTO, or drug trafficking organization.
"They just live in it, move in, grow, and that's all they're there to do is grow marijuana," Special Agent Jason Poore said of the growers.
Poore is part of the Governor's Task Force on Marijuana Eradication, which is a cooperation among several agencies, including the Alcohol Beverage Commission, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the National Guard Counter Drug Task Force.
Poore says the task force is seeing more and more of the DTOs, which he says are usually manned by illegal immigrants who spend four months at a time doing nothing but harvesting the crops.
Monday's bust netted around 357,500 marijuana plants, which were very young.
Poore says, if they had been allowed to grow and fully mature, the plants could have been worth more than $700 million on the street.
"Everybody gets up that's got jobs, and they go and they pay taxes, they do normal things, where these guys, they get up every day, they water their marijuana, they stay with it four months out of the year, and they're gonna bring in millions of dollars tax-free that the rest of us have to pay taxes on," Poore said. "Aside from that, this is the same drugs that's getting to the kids, different people across the state, and across the U.S."
No one was guarding the plants when authorities showed up Monday.
They say several agencies will now work to track down those responsible.
Photos of such grows here: http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+800+miles
“Hundreds of pot plants turned in as evidence”
Typical WOsD drivel.
Gimme a friggin' break ... LEGALIZE the crap and American farmers will grow it and pay excise taxes on it, and the kiddies will have less access to it because it will be age-controlled.
And yes, BTW, round up the wetbacks that are planting the weed here and ship 'em back to Mexico - pronto.
Agreed.
One more item...build the fence!
Bump!
Gas is still $4 a gallon and rising, food inflation is through the roof, other energy costs are rising... and yet the feds have time to waste on this BS.
“Gas is still $4 a gallon and rising, food inflation is through the roof, other energy costs are rising... and yet the feds have time to waste on this BS.”
Gas in my town is $4.69 a gallon. And the feds do not waste their time on this, they leave it to the locals...so you should be happy. You don’t think having our national parks and forests taken over by invading foreign nationals is a problem? McCain supporter?
So, in other words, you believe that it is the federal government's job to regulate the price of fuel and food.
Fascinating.
I feel safer now.
So you believe that the Department of the Interior should not be permitted to manage federal land, then?
BTW - if it really were a weed, there would be no need to lovingly cultivate it. "Weed" is a nickname, not a serious description.
Which weed anyone can and would grow in their window box were it legal
I wouldn't. And I hardly think I am alone.
and would drink less, which might cut down on domestic violence
I see. So you believe that the wifebeater is not to blame for his actions - it is the fault of the alcohol that may or may not be present in his system.
and traffic deaths
Because THC doesn't impair driving acumen? Really?
Do you know what really ended prohibition? THE GOVERNMENT NEEDED REVENUE!!!!
Fascinating theory, but you've got it exactly backwards.
Before Prohibition, 80% of US tax revenue was from excises.
Prohibition created an incentive by government to increase income taxes to offset the loss in excise income.
So income tax rates were raised to as high as 29% during Prohibition.
After Prohibition, income taxes were raised again to as high as 77% in some brackets.
Excise taxes on alcohol were small potatoes after Prohibition and did not significantly enhance government revenue at all. The age of excises as an engine of revenue was over.
Whenever this marijuana question comes up,I think of my days at Sacramento State College back in 1967-68.
Sitting in the dorm room at Westbridge toking on weed while Cream or The Doors played on the stereo.Failing classes while thinking myself profound by replying,”Oh,wow,thats heavy”to my fellow stoners.Sad and shallow people thinking they were oh so cool.
Many went on to speed and coke.I didn’t.I got the hell out of Dodge and haven’t touched that crap in decades.
So with everything going on in this story, Special Agent Poore decides to focus on taxes.
Nice to know where the government's priorities lie.
So, in other words, you believe that it is the federal government's job to go after people who grow plants. Sounds pretty fascist to me.
You do not know what the word "fascism" means, since you are confusing it with Constitutional government through republican institutions.
Do you believe it is right for people to grow crops on someone else's land without the owner's permission?
Man, if there was just some way to take away the incentive for these people to grow pot in our national forests. Why don’t illegal aliens ever grow corn or tobacco in our national forests?
Yawn... you took my post and made a wacky conclusion, now I have done the same to yours. Have a nice day!
The pot fields aren't the main problem in East Tennessee. The Meth Labs however are. Personally I think the cookers need a noose and a good high branch off a tall tree to swing from.
It's a shame that you are unable to conduct a logical argument from first principles and are forced to resort to epithets and slogans instead.
But everything I said is 100% true. The federal government isn't dealing with the problems that it should be dealing with. Instead, it is wasting our time and money on things of little consequence to anyone.
Maybe if the feds were doing something about the infestation of illegals in this country, then there would be much less of a problem with them growing pot in our parks.
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