Posted on 07/15/2021 12:10:32 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Before his corpse was dumped in a shallow grave 50 miles north of Los Angeles, Mauricio Ismael Gonzalez-Ramirez was held prisoner at one of the hundreds of black-market pot farms that have exploded across California’s high desert in the last several years, authorities say.
He worked in what has become California’s newest illegal marijuana haven: the Mojave Desert. A world away from the lush forest groves of the “Emerald Triangle” of Northern California, this hot, dry, unforgiving climate has attracted more than a thousand marijuana plantations that fill the arid expanse between the Antelope Valley and the Colorado River.
It’s an unprecedented siege that has upended life in the remote desert communities and vast tract developments that overlook Joshua trees and scrub. Authorities say the boom has led to forced labor, violence, water theft and the destruction of fragile desert habitat and wildlife.
Longtime residents say they feel less safe, claiming black-market growers act with impunity by carrying weapons, trading gunfire with rivals and threatening those who wander too close to their farms.
“When our family moved to Twentynine Palms nine years ago, it was peaceful and calm,” said Amy Tessier, 38. “The invasion of pot farms changed all that. … We don’t go for walks under the stars anymore. It just doesn’t feel safe.”
Many of these illicit farms are run by criminal organizations, according to federal drug agents, and often rely on the labor of undocumented immigrants like Gonzalez-Ramirez.
Enlisted by growers from his hometown in Mexico, the 26-year-old tended marijuana plants for perhaps as long as a month and a half at a makeshift greenhouse on the outskirts of Lake Los Angeles, where he was held against his will, prosecutors say, by means of “violence, menace, fraud and deceit.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bakersfield.com ...
Do you mean like "the jab" ?
How can they fit it in between the endless solar panels and raptor shredders?
The increasingly harsh water shortage will make the process unprofitable
The pro dopers are so manipulated. I and many others predicted that this would happen. It’s inevitable.
Hype and promote the drug (increase demand) and the price will go up and the black market will fill in. The cartels already own the biggest legal and illegal farms. They are getting richer.
States thought they would eliminate crime and make a ton of $ by legalizing and taxing mj. But then they taxed and tamed it so much a black (criminal) market immediately emerged with the good stuff at 1/2 retail or less.As ANYONE with a modicum of common sense (no economic degree needed) could have told them would happen.
p
Perhaps MTG’s Jewish Space Lasers can set them on fire ?
Many of these illicit farms are run by criminal organizations, according to federal drug agents, and often rely on the labor of undocumented immigrants like Gonzalez-Ramirez.
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Heads up.
Coming to a neighborhood near you?
You might want to familiarize yourself with the California pot laws. These illegal pot farms are growing to circumvent the existing discriminatory laws and taxation on the existing legal facilities.........
Happens all the time when the government tries to over regulate legal commerce........
“Does soil and climate matter?”
Yes.
Pot does best in a rich, well drained loam and temps between 60 and 90 deg. Quality and quantity suffer outside those boundaries.
The water needs to be coming from somewhere. Determine where they are tapped into the water supply and cut it off. End of problem.
Someone hit it right though in remarking that today it is largely grown indoors. That’s how they make it more potent.
My county and the one to the south have hundreds and hundreds of huge illegal grow ops. Most run by transnational drug cartels. It’s horrible.
Thankfully the county sheriff along with DEA, state police and some other orgs or agencies have destroyed 4 huge ones and the last few days made tons of local arrests. I hope they keep it up. The destruction on all levels is beyond belief.
Only people rendered stupid and mentally ill on drugs didn’t see this coming.
Be sure to not be down wind when they burn the evidence
Who did this, and how?
There was no black market prior to this?
They shred it, probably take to landfill. It’s no burn season, so many wildfires so they wouldn’t do it anyway. There are huge piles of chemicals, plastic hoop houses, water piping and who knows what else. Total toxic dumps. When they’re done growing the criminals usually burn it illegally thus starting fires and/or polluting the air and groundwater. Murders are way up, home invasions and car thefts way up, etc.
In the last few months so many non-English speaking illegals poured in it was crazy.
Yeah...it’s a green market...no way the same quality of bud grows in the desert.
>>There was no black market prior to this?<<
Not per se. The prior market was underground. My reference as to an ALTERNATE market to the “legitimate” one.
For example, there is a big cigarette black market due to the “sin taxes” that have made them so expensive.
At least those are my definitions.
The point is: as usual, the Law of Unintended Consequences will NOT be mocked.
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