cannabisnews.com: Busted!





Busted!
Posted by CN Staff on July 27, 2003 at 09:56:14 PT
By Margot Roosevelt 
Source: Time Magazine 
A blue-gray dawn tickles the tops of the ponderosa pines at the Sugar Pine Recreation Area in California's Tahoe National Forest. Campers slumber in lakeside tents; bikers have yet to hit the trails. But all is not quiet on this cool July morning. A platoon of camouflaged figures equipped with rifles, pistols and bulletproof vests creep through manzanita brush with a police dog. Their objective: a marijuana plantation a few hundred yards from a well-traveled tourist area.
As the Forest Service rangers stealthily approach, an unsuspecting Mexican laborer named Pedro Villa García, 51, stands in a clearing. All around him the hillside is freshly terraced, irrigated by black plastic hoses and dotted with iridescent green cannabis. Villa García peers down the path. Is that a black bear—a common local species—emerging from the morning mist? Suddenly he sees the rangers and dashes off through the brambles. But the police dog, a Belgian Malinois, catches up quickly, sinking its teeth into Villa García's arm. Two rangers wrestle him to the ground and handcuff him. "We're good at jungle warfare," says Laura Mark, a Forest Service investigator, as she prepares to question the suspect. "We're the ninjas of the woods." Armed combat is hardly what families hope to encounter as they head for their summer vacations in America's national parks and forests. But drug smugglers, methamphetamine cooks and cannabis cultivators are invading federal lands as never before. A U.S. Park Service ranger in Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was gunned down by a Mexican pot smuggler last August. In Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest, 192 meth labs have been dismantled over the past three years. And marijuana farms are infesting Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest and Alabama's Talladega National Forest. But the most explosive conflicts—and the biggest hauls—are taking place in California. As enforcement tightens along U.S. borders, especially since 9/11, it is getting harder to transport drugs into America. So Mexican traffickers have turned to creating vast marijuana plantations Stateside, that much closer to their main customers. Thanks to a mild climate, rich soil and a lengthy, March-to-October growing season, California cultivators routinely produce 10-ft.-high specimens worth up to $4,000 each. Some of these California pot farms stretch over several hundred acres and have as many as 50,000 plants. Last year 420,000 pot plants with a street value of $1.5 billion were eradicated from the state's 18 federal forests, a tenfold increase from 1994. In Sequoia National Park, renowned for its majestic trees, rangers confiscated eight tons of marijuana in a single week last September. "We have a tremendous influx of Mexican growers," says Ross Butler, a special agent for the federal Bureau of Land Management. "They are sophisticated. They have guns. And we don't know much about who they are." Villa García is unarmed when he is caught in the Tahoe forest—probably, rangers say, because it is early in the season. If they had already matured, the 3,500 plants he was tending would have yielded some $8 million worth of pot—an investment worth protecting. In the fall, when scores of Mexican workers arrive to harvest and process the pot, shoot-outs occur between law-enforcement agents and camouflage-clad growers toting AK-47s. Sometimes the pot pirates mistake innocent tourists for thieves or cops. Last year kayakers on the Salmon River in the Klamath National Forest were held at gunpoint by traffickers, as were a hiker in the Sequoia National Park and hunters in Mendocino National Forest. Two years ago, an 8-year-old boy hunting deer in the Eldorado National Forest with his father was shot in the face by pot farmers. "If you are a hunter, a fisherman or a backpacker, it can be dangerous," says Michael Delaney, who oversees marijuana cases for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Northern California. "There's a safety factor for everyone who is out there." Squirming in his handcuffs, the white-bearded Villa García looks more like a kindly grandfather than a drug trafficker. He says he has been in the U.S. poquito—only a short time. A stranger came to his village in the Mexican state of Michoacán and brought him across the border, along with four others. One of them was with him on the Tahoe farm but managed to escape. "I did not know what kind of work it would be," he says in Spanish, adding that he was paid $200 a month. Villa García was arraigned on narcotics-cultivation charges, pleaded not guilty, and is in prison awaiting trial. His is a story federal agents know well after arresting scores of low-level gardeners, all undocumented, most hailing from Michoacán. "They don't know much, and they're told, ‘You talk, you gonna die,'" says Mark, who has questioned 60 such workers in the past year. "The odds of us finding the organizers are slim." At least five Mexican drug rings are under investigation, some of them related to the Michoacán-based Magana family. In June 2001, nine members of the Magana clan pleaded guilty in federal court to narcotics charges and were given prison sentences ranging from four to 12 years. The Maganas have been tied to 20 large gardens with more than 100,000 plants in the Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus and Mendocino national forests. They also supplied workers for pot farms on federal land in Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. According to investigators, the Maganas and other groups have used profits from methamphetamine operations to expand into marijuana. They own gas stations, haciendas and million-dollar resorts in Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Michoacán and other parts of Mexico. "They have tremendous networks involving legal businesses, money laundering and distribution," says Jerry Moore, the Forest Service's regional law-enforcement chief. "We arrest people, but new players move in." Villa García and his Tahoe pot farm were discovered a week after two forest rangers on patrol noticed a recently bushwhacked footpath. After the bust, the rangers found the usual layout and pattern of cultivation. "It's like they all go to the same college course—Marijuana 101," says Mark. As in other grows, seedlings are planted 6 ft. apart in rows. A forest canopy admits filtered sunlight but hides the seedlings from aerial surveillance. A stream is diverted to allow its water to flow through drip-irrigation tubes along the terraces. So that the workers can escape more easily, their sleeping area—strewn with toothbrushes and bottles of Pepto-Bismol and NyQuil—is hidden in the brush, apart from the kitchen and processing area. Propane bottles provide fuel for a two-burner stove next to bags of tortillas, cans of Juanita's-brand menudo (tripe), sacks of fertilizer and a votive card of St. Peter with the inscription "May your spirit intercede for sinners …" in Spanish. Rangers say that in March and April, workers are driven in vans along remote forest roads at dusk or dawn. They pile out onto prescouted paths with 100-lb. packs of supplies. Once they set up camp and begin planting, they are resupplied every two to three weeks. Throughout the summer, a skeletal crew tends the gardens, which are often divided into connected plots. In the fall, more workers come in to process the weed; one raid found 40 sleeping bags at a single site. The workers pick the flowering tops and hang them in nets to dry for up to a week. They peel off the buds, package the pot using scales and Baggies, and hike it out at night in duffel bags. At preset pickup points, vans await to transport the pot to consumers across the U.S. Beyond the safety issue, the ecological damage from large-scale farms in parks and forests could take years to repair. Tree cutting and terraced slopes are causing massive erosion. In addition, the pot farmers leave a mess. At the Tahoe grow, 20 rangers and sheriff's deputies dug up the cannabis and stuffed it into paper bags as evidence. But propane tanks, coils of irrigation hose and food cans were left behind. "We don't have the manpower to get the garbage out," says Mark as she rips open plastic bags and tosses tortillas into the bushes. Only seven drug-enforcement agents are assigned to police California's 20 million acres of federal forests. Rangers estimate that they discover as few as a third of the pot farms growing on public lands—and more than half of those are left untouched for lack of personnel to investigate them. When forest fires demand extra bodies, as was the case during last year's drought, even more cannabis is left to harvest. "This is a huge criminal enterprise, and we have so few resources to fight it," says Mark. "There are more growers than we know about or can deal with. We pick off a couple. The rest get away." Note: Drug dealers are planting pot farms all over our national parks, and the Park Service is struggling to root them out. TIME goes on a raid.Newshawk: JR Bob Dobbs Source: Time Magazine (US)Author: Margot Roosevelt Published: August 04, 2003 IssueCopyright: 2003 Time Inc.Contact: letters time.comWebsite: http://www.time.com/time/Related Articles:National Parks Plagued by Pot Fields http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16303.shtmlDrug Cartels Thrive in US National Park http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16579.shtmlMarijuana Found Thriving in Forests http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14764.shtml 
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on July 29, 2003 at 08:29:02 PT
This Thread Is Over Now
Anymore comments on this thread will be deleted. Hurting dogs is not acceptable talk. 
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Comment #16 posted by Lehder on July 29, 2003 at 04:32:47 PT
101
Thanks, Mota, for the good tips on dealing with attack dogs. These animals are overrated both as officers and gentlemen, and people should know how to handle them. Walking back from the library one time, I backhanded an aggressive dog right in the snout with the face of my book, _____ , and that's how I got my start.As an armchair terrorist, I await your scheduling of the course "Chopper 101". A low tech means of dropping these pesky intruders will guarantee you a large and cosmopolitan class.
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Comment #15 posted by goneposthole on July 28, 2003 at 16:28:35 PT
stop it
looks like the US gobermint has their budding marijuana war building up here, eh? the comments are surily and unkind. 
I don't like it. It needs to stop. setting the woods on fire as a diversionary tactic is war. I have a terrible aversion to war because nothing good ever results from it. You got a war on your hands now, DEA and US gubmint. It is going to be hard to stop. The chaos apparently has begun. You started it , US 'authorities, you can wallow in it. I refuse to take part. peace to all. good day
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Comment #14 posted by Petard on July 28, 2003 at 09:19:42 PT
More dog stuff
I laughed hard a couple of weeks ago when the story was on the local news.A prison escapee was known to be in the SW Arkansas area. The cops ran him off the interstate (I-30) in the car he stole. He ran off into the woods. They naturally called out the dogs. 2 days later escapee turns himself in at one of the roadblocks. Cops begin searching for a missing "officer". Escapee tells them which tree he used his socks to tie the dog to, missing "officer" found unharmed. IMO it's a sad state (pun intended) of affairs to consider an animal an officer, an official, of the state. But then again, that's the way they want people to be, perform assigned tasks and get a doggy biscuit and a pat on the head in return. Although most state officials and politicians are dogs anyway.
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on July 28, 2003 at 07:42:21 PT
Off Topic
I didn't know where to put this comment so I decided to put it here. Bob Hope's death was not unexpected. My husband was in Vietnam when Bob Hope came to entertain the troops. My husband was on guard duty so he didn't get to see him but he lifted the spirits of all of those young men and I always thought of Bob Hope as an example of decency and goodness. Thanks for the memories! Rest in Peace!
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Comment #12 posted by Patrick on July 28, 2003 at 07:15:16 PT
Always with the 420
Last year 420,000 pot plants with a street value of $1.5 billion were eradicated from the state's 18 federal forests, a tenfold increase from 1994. I wonder is it coincidence or everytime 420 shows up in an article the author is sending subliminal messages about pot?
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on July 27, 2003 at 19:37:36 PT
My 2 Cents
I'm very sadden reading about all of the violence that is happening in the National Parks. People are greedy and money can make people really fight. Money causes the violence not Cannabis. If Cannabis was legal the bad guys would just go away. It's so very simple.
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Comment #10 posted by MOTAVATION on July 27, 2003 at 19:24:06 PT:
*****Burn Baby Burn*****
I agree with you Lehder. It shouldn't take long for the graduates of Marijuana 101 to start burning down every forest come harvest time. It would really be surprising, if there are any trees left standing next year.Dogs 101If a dog bites your arm. Push your arm in his mouth. This causes an automatic gag reflex, causing the dog to "let go".Another way is to "offer" an attaking dog, your weak arm. Once the dog bites, use the stronger arm to grab him by the throat and squeeze violently. Also, Pit Bulls are the strongest dogs in the world. They can kill any other kind of dog, usually in seconds, including Belgian Malinois. *Coca 101* now being offered, prerequesite Marijuana 101.
Course introdution into importing Pablo Escobar's techniques to america.Long Live Capitalism, down with communists, terrorists and prohibitionists.p.s. Don't leave home without your pit bull.
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Comment #9 posted by cloud7 on July 27, 2003 at 15:58:51 PT
jvthc
Could you elaborate? What did you mean...do you think cannabis prohibition will be ended in 2004?"The day is coming, though. It may not be as long as it once seemed, either. Keep watching the news, you'll see the changes in 2004 (and I don't mean U.S. elections, either)."
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on July 27, 2003 at 15:37:06 PT
News Brief -- Associated Press
Growing Prison Populations Challenge Already Cash-Strapped States
 
July 27, 2003Washington-AP -- Prison populations are growing while the crime rate drops.It's costing the federal government and states 40 (b) billion dollars a year at a time of drastic budget shortfalls.A report released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics says the inmate population of two-point-one (m) million in 2002 is a two-point-six percent increase over 2001. Meantime, The F-B-I says crime dropped point-two percent during that time.Experts say mandatory sentences are one reason for the increase, especially for nonviolent drug offenses.The American Civil Liberties Union says prison sentences don't stop crime, but vocational training and drug-treatment programs are effective.A criminal justice expert and law professor says a shortfall of money may result in a cap on the number of inmates.Copyright 2003 Associated Press. 
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Comment #7 posted by jvthc on July 27, 2003 at 15:21:31 PT:
Iridescent green....
In an effort to be poetic, the writer describes the plant as an "iridescent green."Do they actually intend to suggest the plant is so wired that it glows in rainbow colors? You'd think you'd have to plug them in...The really sad part is, at least, factually documented. The people they're catching are probably victims, now further victimized by our law enforcement. If they were growing for their own income, they'd be rich and would hire others to do the hard work (and risky work) for them. The day is coming, though. It may not be as long as it once seemed, either. Keep watching the news, you'll see the changes in 2004 (and I don't mean U.S. elections, either).
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Comment #6 posted by Lehder on July 27, 2003 at 15:20:31 PT
manliness vs. instinct
>>When forest fires demand extra bodies, as was the case
   during last year's drought, even more cannabis is left to harvest.Frankly, I am surprised that there remains a single tree to burn. When I heard news reports that perhaps thousands of terrorists were laying in wait in the U.S., I began thinking about what I would do to cripple the U.S. were I myself a terrorist and not merely a devil's advocate. I decided that I would equip myself with a woman and a kid to "vacation" with, some flammable materials, and common articles from which to fashion primitive fuses of various kinds. I day dreamed further that it would be a simple matter to interrupt our sight seeing for ten minutes several times a day to place the pyrotechnics, and that after three or four weeks hundreds of fires would ignite more or less simultaneously throughout the West.The flaw in this sinsiter plan is that it is not truly a terrorist plan, insofar as we are accustomed to thinking of terrorist attacks as suicidal attacks whose perpetrators die in explosions. In this foolish plan, the terrorists walk.At any rate, the war on drugs, like the space program, produces many spinoffs, and here is another of its miracles: it has provided an incentive for burning forests as a decoy during marijuana harvest season. Thanks again, war on drugs, from many unhappy campers.>>But the police dog, a Belgian Malinois, catches up quickly, sinking its teeth into
   Villa García's arm. This is a truly pathetic showing for an international crime syndicate, to be felled by a cop's mutt. I know lots of guys who would have killed that dog with a cue stick or a beer bottle, or choked it, or dragged their wrist studs across the animal's nose, or commanded their own dogs to kill the narco cur. If you've never seen an arm biting dog stomped to death, then you've never hung out with Hell's Angels, you've never met a really tough man at all. If you've never seen an attack dog lifted bodily from the ground and broken against a rock or tree, then you probably live in a nunnery and not among men. This is a ridiculous, insulting news story. My woman would have impaled that dog on her spikes as I sat rolling joints.I predict an escalation in drug war violence. Big deal - it's a certainty. Escalation will reach any level required to meet the cowardly challenges of drug warriors, to produce and deliver the goods. 
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Comment #5 posted by Virgil on July 27, 2003 at 12:52:48 PT
Money does not grow on trees
The closest thing to a money tree is a cannabis plant.I am somewhat amused that this guy proudly calls himself a Ninja. I wish he said I am an assassin trained to do my master's bidding. 
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Comment #4 posted by Petard on July 27, 2003 at 12:31:11 PT:
Ninja's vs Samarai coming to a forest near you
Once again, the Arms Race is set to escalate. With more militaristic police in the National Parks and Forests don't be surprised to hear of more booby traps, more armed encounters, etc.. Besides, we're a Capitialist economy, these growers are merely excercising excellent Capitailistic initiative, Supply and Demand, produce cheap, sell for profit. Instead of commending them for the Capitalistic initiative they get shot and dog bit though. It's OK to cut a Redwood, to clear cut an entire region, but they say it's a crime to plant a weed. Go figure. Next week's feature film, "Shootout at the Dairy" as Bessy the cow goes head to head with the FDA over fat content of dairy products.
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Comment #3 posted by john wayne on July 27, 2003 at 11:20:29 PT
ah yes,
the "ninjas of the woods" portrayed as valiant heroes by the syncophant press. These ninjas, while making sensational news copy, don't seem to be having much of an effect on pot prices in the Golden State, which have been dropping like a rock lately.As per ever usual, the focus is on a few he-man raids while
the vast majority of product makes it to market.  How to fix that? Give the ninjas way more money, natch. They will "protect" you from those evil pot growers.  Now, what about the ninja's pot plantations? Who polices those? Funny, the ninja's pot plots didn't even make it into the story.
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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on July 27, 2003 at 11:20:04 PT
Legal and Controlled Access To Cannabis
would eliminate this "threat" to the National Park system. Legal and Controlled Access To Cannabis would reduce the border control problem to allow them to catch bad people NOT plant matter.Legal and Controlled Access To Cannabis would greatly reduce the prison population and the extreme taxing of policing resources dedicated to eliminating the earth of a plant that will never be eliminated because I believe it was put on this earth by a loving and caring Creator, NOT the fake jesus created by the organized religious establishment to kill and control people.Or, we could have the same military murderers killing kids in Iraq come over here and waste people in our National Parks.The Rev. Bud Green
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Comment #1 posted by Truth on July 27, 2003 at 10:55:31 PT
Well...
It might be illegal to grow pot in a national forest but it certainly isn't as immoral as sending a trained attack dog to go chomp on an unarmed nonviolent human being.
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