Posted on 07/31/2009 1:02:43 PM PDT by AuntB
Empty turtle shells, decaying skunk carcasses and a set of deer antlers lay strewn about an empty campsite in California's Sierra National Forest.
The butchered animals, as well as several five-pound propane canisters, camp stoves and heaps of trash, were all that remained of the 69 marijuana plantations recently uncovered in Fresno County as part of operation "Save our Sierras."
The massive operation that began in February has already seized about 318,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced last week. In addition to 82 arrests, the multi-jurisdictional federal, state and local operation netted 42 pounds of processed marijuana, more than $40,000 in cash, 25 weapons and three vehicles.
"Mexican drug trafficking organizations have been operating on public lands to cultivate marijuana, with serious consequences for the environment and public safety," said Gil Kerlikowske, chief of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy at a briefing on the investigation.
Subjects arrested were booked on charges of cultivation of marijuana, possession for sale, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony and conspiracy.
The drug plantations are as much an environmental menace as they are a public safety threat.
Growers in Fresno County used a cocktail of pesticides and fertilizers many times stronger than what is used on residential lawns to cultivate their crop. "This stuff leaches out pretty quickly," said Shane Krogen, executive director of the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew in charge of helping clear the land of chemicals and trash so it can begin its slow restoration.
While the chemical pesticides kill insects and other organisms directly, fertilizer runoff contaminates local waterways and aids in the growth of algae and weeds. The vegetation in turn impedes water flows that are critical to frogs, toads and salamanders in the Kings and San Joaquin rivers, Krogen said.
Northward-shifting operations
The Sierra operations are the latest in a growing number of illegal plantations run by foreign suppliers who have moved north of the U.S.-Mexico border where they are closer to U.S. drug markets. Of the 82 individuals arrested in the "Save our Sierras" sting, all but two were Mexican or some other foreign nationality.
Bankrolled by sophisticated drug cartels, suppliers are sidestepping border patrols to grow in relative obscurity on Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service lands across the West and even into the Southeast.
"It's easier to cross the border to grow marijuana on public lands than to grow it in Mexico and smuggle it across," Krogen said.
Earlier this month, $2.5 million worth of marijuana was seized from a sophisticated pot-growing operation in the mountains near Colorado's Cheesman Reservoir in the Pike National Forest. In early June, hikers in a remote area of southwest Idaho stumbled upon a marijuana crop that netted 12,545 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $6.3 million.
"There is a growing issue of marijuana cultivation on public lands in the U.S., especially in California and Oregon, and it appears they have discovered southwestern Idaho," said BLM special agent in charge Loren Good.
Temperate climates on the West Coast have nurtured what has become a booming marijuana market. The number of marijuana plants confiscated by Forest Service officials has risen by an average of 51 percent in each of the past four years, reaching a high of 3.3 million plants in 2008.
The number of plants seized in California national forests alone has risen steadily from 569,000 in 2003 to 2.4 million in 2008.
"It's definitely a trend," said Keith McGrath, a law enforcement officer in BLM's Idaho office who was part of last month's raid in a far-flung desert canyon.
"We're seeing a shift to more organized grows and larger grows," McGrath said. "They're being set up and run through the cartels, and it's becoming a big chunk of our work load."
Strengthening law enforcement
Federal agencies are responding by beefing up law enforcement patrols and investing in technologies like helicopter surveillance and unmanned aerial drones to track down marijuana growers operating in California's lush woodlands.
Forest Service law enforcement staff was doubled from 14 to 28 agents in California between 2007 and 2008, said spokesman John Heil, resulting in the eradication of 3.1 million marijuana plants in the last fiscal year.
Congress is responding too, with a recent $3 million supplemental appropriation secured by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that allowed the Park Service to add 25 new law enforcement officers to its Pacific Region parks, said Ron Sundergill, regional director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Parks Conservation Association.
Sundergill applauded the land management agencies for increasing the pressure on illegal growers but said he fears such efforts are depleting agencies' already-thin budgets for things like interpretive services and ranger tours.
"Our parks shouldn't have to spend their limited resources fighting drug cartels when those resources could instead be used to educate and inspire our children -- the future stewards of our national parks," Sundergill said.
More money is likely to be provided if Congress approves Interior's fiscal 2010 budget later this year. Feinstein, who chairs the subcommittee in charge of Interior spending, said she was concerned over the increasing threat of drug cartels on public lands and would look to increase resources for enforcement.
Meanwhile, agency officials say they will remain vigilant in seeking out marijuana growers, even as they venture deeper into the nation's public lands network. "As more pressure happens in California, they're going to start looking at Oregon, Nevada and Idaho," said Krogen, of the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew. "Then they'll start looking at the Southeast too, closer to distribution."
It only took the NY Times YEARS to finally report on this problem!! People like Lou Dobbs & me have been trying to report what is going on with the MEXICAN destruction of our habitat...where were the whacked out enviros??? Probably getting payola from the cartels, like our politicians!
I love the last line....""As more pressure happens in California, they're going to start looking at Oregon, Nevada and Idaho," said Krogen, of the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew. "Then they'll start looking at the Southeast too, closer to distribution."
WELL! IT's all over Oregon and many other states and has been for years. They're just a bit behind!
Photos, etc. here (from 2006!):
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=Invasion+lou+dobbs
“Save our Sierras” lol
more like a
“Save our Sinsemilla” plots
buy from a local cartel
Wow. Gives a whole new meaning to the term “high country.”
Prohibition has been such a smashing success, hasn’t it?
Just doing jobs Americans wont do. Isn’t multiculturalism wonderful you insane liberals?
I agree, amazing how long many have ignored its intrusion into federal and state lands. The stuff grows like weeds.. It is a weed. The state could use the revenue from a crop like this and a crop it is all the side discussions aside, it’s also obvious there are foreign markets hungry for it.
The fact that Mexican cartels support armies of growers makes it a real tough nut to crack, of late, there are no shortage of busts and arrests statewide with Mexican nationals involved.
“It’s easier to cross the border to grow marijuana on public lands than to grow it in Mexico and smuggle it across,” Krogen said.”
BUILD THE FENCE!
Also...not ALL of the growers are ‘illegal’....some have been found with USA issued ‘agricultural’ green cards!
I think the drug dealers deserve credit for taking the “green” approach to growing marijuana. Think of the energy savings of using natural sunlight instead of the wasteful electric energy or gas generators to power high-voltage lights in indoor hydroponic farms. The savings cost can be passed on to the consumer and they help save the planet at the same time!
More proof that if you are pro-illegal alien.....you are anti-American.....
This is embarrassing that we have Third World illegal alien drug dealers growing their dope on US SOIL!
So much for national security
Obviously we need real leadership....not Bush, McCain, Obama pandering to illegal aliens.
Because when Americans in places like Eastern Kentucky try to grow high quality MJ, the ATFE and the DEA are all over their a-ses like Barney Frank.
Legalize MJ, and SEAL THE BORDER!
These folks are darn lucky they didn't get "lost" in that remote area, never to be seen again.
Is one plant worth $3,500?
“buy from a local cartel”
They probably use illegals too.
“Prohibition has been such a smashing success, hasn’t it?”
That is an entire other subject. But it is ironic that weed is against US law and so is ILLEGAL immigration of armed drug cartel organized crime...but no one is doing much about that!
It sounds as though the drug cartels are getting into the spirit of Bammie’s “green jobs” gig. Maybe they’ll qualify for a “stimulus” package too.
No.
“Is one plant worth $3,500? “
Can be...around here they grow them 20 feet tall. And all the $$ is going to the Mexican economy, not ours.
Photos:
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=Invasion+lou+dobbs
until they enact a “shoot on sight” doctrine, it’s all kabuki for you consumption.
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