Free Republic

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...

Three marijuana growing operations have been discovered near the houses where a family of 8 was murdered “execution style” in rural Ohio. While the drug trafficking has not been publicly singled out as a motive by authorities nor have they publicly mentioned cartels or organized crime, investigators have called the murders a “complex operation”. “This was a pre-planned execution of eight individuals, it was a sophisticated operation,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike Devine in a televised interview aired by Fox News. “Those who carried it out did everything they could to hinder the investigation and their prosecution.”

DENVER – A federal warning to beware of campers in national forests who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music because they could be armed marijuana growers is racial profiling, an advocate for Hispanic rights said Friday. The warnings were issued Wednesday by the U.S. Forest Service, which is investigating how much marijuana is being illegally cultivated in Colorado's national forests following the recent discovery of more than 14,000 plants in Pike National Forest. "That's discriminatory, and it puts Hispanic campers in danger," said Polly Baca, co-chairwoman of the Colorado Latino Forum.