Posted on 09/23/2003 5:30:27 PM PDT by Pern
Violence in Northern California's marijuana fields is rising as government raids are on pace to seize a record $1.4 billion worth of the illicit weed on the North Coast and around the state.
The body of a Santa Rosa man hacked to death by a machete was found near a Mendocino County pot garden Friday, capping a week in which four suspected marijuana-field guards were killed in two separate confrontations in Shasta and Butte counties with local and state authorities.
Five weeks into the state's annual two-month harvest campaign against pot growers, marijuana raid teams are on a record pace. Nearly 325,000 maturing marijuana plants statewide already have been whacked down and removed from outdoor pot gardens. For the entire season last year, a total of 354,164 plants were seized.
Despite the early successes, prospects of a harvest of violence unsettle local and state authorities.
Prompted by last week's pot-field shootings, Attorney General Bill Lockyer over the weekend urged the public, especially hunters and hikers, to be cautious in marijuana-growing country this time of year. Last year, 56 percent of pot plants seized during drug raids were found growing on public lands, including state and national parks and forests.
Although the volume of marijuana seizures could set a new record this year, local and state authorities concede that it's only a slice of a cash crop that's worth billions of dollars on the black market.
"We can't begin to estimate the volume growing out there that we don't get, but the numbers are staggering," said Rodney Court, a spokesman for the multi-agency law enforcement task force called CAMP, for Campaign Against Marijuana Planting.
Every year, three CAMP teams fan out across the state, targeting dope-growing operations in mostly rural regions, including Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
Mendocino County is the perennial top pot-producing county, largely because the weed thrives in its long, hot summers and is easily grown away from the public eye in the rugged and remote terrain that dominates the county's landscape.
The county's dope-growing industry has its roots in the counterculture movement of the late 1960s and early '70s, when an influx of "back-to-the-land settlers" turned to growing marijuana to supplement their meager incomes.
But today, local and and state authorities say their biggest worry is the rise of large-scale marijuana growing operations that they say are run by Mexican drug cartels.
On Wednesday, Mendocino County's marijuana unit and a CAMP team were conducting a planned raid on a 1,500-plant garden in the Bells Spring Road region when agents uncovered a much larger outdoor operation nearby. They returned Thursday to the remote hillside to rip out as many as 10,000 plants.
"We have every reason to believe it is part of a Mexican-national operation," said Court.
Small-time local pot growers, who often rely on growing and selling marijuana to supplement their incomes, also fear the intrusion of the cartel operations and the armed guards that patrol them.
"There's a creepy gangsterism involved with marijuana growing today," said a Mendocino grower who asked not to be identified. The grower said the presence of the Mexican cartels has given an edge to what was once an underground cash crop industry fueled by so-called "mom and pop" growers.
Until a few days ago, no violence had erupted on the North Coast this year, as has happened in the past.
But on Friday, 34-year-old Jose Luis Gonzales of Santa Rosa, who had been missing for two days, was found dead in a marijuana garden along remote Mountain View Road between Boonville and Point Arena.
He apparently was killed by blows from a machete, and investigators are still trying to determine why he was in the area, Mendocino County Sheriff Tony Craver said Sunday. Authorities will conduct an autopsy today.
The discovery of Gonzales' body came in a week of marijuana harvest-related violence around Northern California.
A special Butte County marijuana team shot and killed two men who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles while guarding a pot garden in a remote area near Feather Falls, according to Butte Sheriff Perry Reniff.
In Shasta County on Tuesday, drug teams were greeted by gunfire during a raid on a marijuana garden where as many as 30,000 plants were being grown. Two suspects were killed in that shootout.
On the same day, a deputy was shot at during a raid in San Luis Obispo County, and further south in Ventura County, agents seized 7,000 mature pot plants in an area where a backcountry hunter had been fired upon. In the Los Padres National Forest near Ojai a few days earlier, a hunter told authorities he was fired upon by three armed men with automatic weapons.
"The dangers these illegal operations pose to innocent and unaware citizens are real," said CAMP Director Val Jimenez in a statement.
Mendocino County is the marijuana production capital of California. In 2002, almost three times the number of pot plants were seized in Mendocino County -- 103,104 -- than in any other county in the state.
Sonoma County, which registered an unusual spike in pot production, ranked second with 39,313 plants uprooted, followed by Santa Barbara County with 32,698.
The three counties together accounted for almost two-thirds of the volume of marijuana confiscated statewide, according to state statistics. The state doesn't estimate the volume of marijuana grown for medicinal use under state Proposition 215 guidelines.
Based on state estimates of marijuana's wholesale value, the number of plants seized in Mendocino County last year were potentially worth more than $400 million on the black market. CAMP estimates that every uprooted marijuana plant could produce a pound of pot worth $4,000 wholesale, although local growers say that figure is inflated.
A more realistic wholesale value is $2,500, growers say. But even with that figure, Mendocino County's harvest alone could be worth $2 billion. Under that same formula, Sonoma County's illicit pot production could be worth $1 billion or more annually, based on CAMP statistics from 2002.
In comparison, the combined value of wine grape production in Sonoma and Mendocino counties -- each county's biggest legal agricultural crop -- last year was $457 million.
As staggering as CAMP's current pot calculations are, the estimates don't include hidden indoor garden operations that have become widespread in Mendocino County and elsewhere.
CAMP teams assist local law enforcement in uncovering outdoor gardens, which can be visible from adjoining properties or from the air. Flyovers by local drug agents or tips from unhappy neighbors usually lead authorities to the gardens, which often are covered by camouflage material or hidden among the trees. Drip irrigation lines crisscross the hillsides, delivering water from nearby springs and creeks to the maturing pot plants.
Indoor garden operations are almost as widespread, but are typically more sophisticated and difficult to detect.
Two years ago, during a raid near Laytonville, drug agents found sophisticated marijuana-growing operations concealed inside structures built to look like new homes on the outside. The interiors, however, were set up for indoor marijuana cultivation, including special lights and high-tech security systems.
Mendocino County District Attorney Norman Vroman, a strong supporter of the state's medical marijuana law, said that marijuana has become a part of the county economy and that the CAMP crackdown has not slowed marijuana cultivation.
He believes the number of pot plants seized every year represents 10 percent or less of the annual marijuana harvest.
Vroman said in his five years as the county's chief prosecutor of drug-related crimes, the pattern has been the same: "More marijuana produced every year despite the best efforts of law enforcement."
"The truth is that marijuana has always been by far the biggest cash crop locally, and across the state," he said.
Hey, those are illegal!!
Minor possession of cannabis in Western Australia is set to be decriminalised after legislation finally cleared state Parliament last night.
Labor's Cannabis Control Bill was passed on the Government's numbers, with amendments approved by the Legislative Council.
Under the reforms, possession of up to 30 grams of cannabis leaf, or two plants ,will no longer attract a criminal record, although a "three-strikes" clause will target people issued with repeat infringements.
The successful passage of the bill, first introduced in March by the former Health Minister, Bob Kucera, sees the major recommendation of the 2001 Community Drug Summit achieved.
It would seem only natural for a thread dealing with smoking pot, that it be in the smokey backroom.
Jun for BB4 winner.
People overindulge in many things and the government doesn't say a word, from welfare to video games to spending time on FreeRepublic! My house isn't near as organized as it could be because of the addictive qualities of this website and people can't call because the phone line is tied up! (yes, we live in the stone age here).
When it comes to drug laws and specifically marijuana laws, there is no common sense. And if they let people grow for their own personal use only, just think of all the $$ they'd lose via seizures, court costs, lawyer fees, fines and cheap labor from work release.
Bah. I agree with you, but I can't stand either her or Alison. The only positive is that I picked Jun in the post-Episode 1 pool I had with some friends. Another friend of mine picked Alsion, go figure. If you check out the predictions I made about each houseguest in post 1 of the BB thread, you'll notice I picked pretty darned good. Yes, I'm bragging. :-)
And that law would make sense to you?
And for good reason.
I can't believe that our way to WOD salvation is to simply pass a law that says you may only grow pot (not buy it) and it must be for your own use (there go the MM "caregivers").
I respectfully protest this policy. It doesn't take any more time to post to News---and many drug threads do remain there, cf. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/involved?group=124.
You can tell that the kilo of pot my neighbor has was grown by him and that he has absolutely no intention of selling it to my kids.
Simply amazing. How do you do that?
Wait, wait I know. You'll camp out in front of 10 million pot smoker's homes and wait for them to sneak next door with a baggie of pot. Right? Did I guess right?
Or maybe this law is so unenforceable that you're hoping everyone will throw up their hands and just legalize it.
That's what I like about the anti-WOD crowd -- they're so up front and honest. Just like the anti-smoking crowd.
Simply amazing. How do you do that?
Wait, wait I know. You'll camp out in front of 10 million pot smoker's homes and wait for them to sneak next door with a baggie of pot. Right? Did I guess right?
Red herring. We don't judge any other law on the basis of how many violations can be directly prevented before they occur---otherwise we'd ditch almost all laws.
Going by the real standard---whether violations can be detected after the fact---this proposal seems fine. "You grew that pot, eh? Let's see your field/greenhouse."
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