Posted on 04/15/2008 9:37:23 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer on Monday granted a motion for appointment of a new attorney for an illegal immigrant who was apprehended allegedly guarding a large marijuana field off Warrensburg Road last year.
Bedo Pineda-Infanti, 58, a Mexican national, had been scheduled to be sentenced on Monday, but he filed a hand-written request last month for appointment of a new defense attorney to replace Assistant Federal Defender Tim S. Moore.
"When I took my (guilty) plea, I honestly didn't understand what I was told," the handwritten motion said in part.
Pineda-Infanti had pleaded guilty last Dec. 5 to conspiracy to manufacture 1,000, or more, marijuana plants; possessing a Glenfield Model 60 .22-caliber rifle and a Chinese-made Norinco MAC90 7.62-by-39-mm rifle in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime; and being an illegal alien in possession of firearms.
A federal criminal complaint filed against Pineda-Infanti by FBI Special Agent Kevin Keithley on Sept. 18, 2007, alleged that from Sept. 1 until "on or about Sept. 13," Pineda-Infanti "and other persons, known and unknown, conspired to manufacture 1,000, or more marijuana plants.
The complaint says that on Sept. 13, agents of the Third Judicial District Drug Task Force, who were investigating a report of a large marijuana growing operation, located Pineda-Infanti and the marijuana patch in Greene County.
The plea agreement in the case said that on Sept. 13 "a citizen of Greene County reported to law-enforcement (that) he had come upon a marijuana field."
Three Others Got Away
On that day according to the plea agreement, Third Judicial District Drug Task Force agents came upon the marijuana field.
"Four individuals were in the field when DTF agents arrived," the plea agreement states.
"Three individuals fled, (with) one of them dropping the Norinco MAC90 rifle. Agents found defendant Bedo Pineda-Infanti a short distance from the main marijuana patch, cultivating a marijuana plant."
None of the other three people in the field when agents raided it have been located or charged, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Hebets.
8,000 Marijuana Plants
The main marijuana field, according to the plea agreement, was "approximately 50 yards wide and 600 to 700 yards long" and contained an estimated 8,000 marijuana plants.
Pineda-Infanti, according to the plea agreement, admitted that he was in the United States illegally and told federal investigators that he had been recruited to guard the marijuana field and was to be paid $100 per day.
The main marijuana field, according to the plea agreement, was "approximately 50 yards wide and 600 to 700 yards long" and contained an estimated 8,000 marijuana plants. __________________________________________
Greeneville is about 70 miles East of Knoxville, TN
PING
Doing the work that Americans won’t do. You just can’t find anyone in this country to guard marijuana fields for a measley hundred dollars a day. What is a criminal operation to do? I’m talking about the marijuana growers, not the judge. or am I?
What a rookie, Doesn’t sound like Mexico’s finest to me.
PING
Thought this might interest you
I’m curious as to how this illegal was ‘cultivating’ a plant with a Glenfield Model 60 .22? ... Just doing the $100/day crimes Americans won’t stoop to do I guess.
:)
I don’t think we need to be so fearful of a ‘doobie’. It’s not marijuana that is causing this country so much drug-related trouble. It is crystal meth, - the cause of the majority of crime in the US. And the majority of it comes from Mexico. (I have read that 96% of the meth in this country comes from south of the OPEN border.)
http://www.kpho.com/news/15880192/detail.html
Crystal meth is a terrible addiction. I lost some friends many years ago to it. I didn’t see one girl since high school & she got addicted to it. OMG She looked so pretty in high school & when I saw her before she finally died she looked like a hag. No teeth, no looks left and old beyond repair. I have a poem about it somewhere I will send you ...Pandy
you have a FReepmail ...Hugs Pandy
Yup. I know. Did you read that poem I sent you? Very sad but all too true.
OMG - that poem should be read to every kid over age three! I hope you will be able to post it.....
Maybe one “doobie” can’t kill you, but several/many can. I’ve lost friends who died from smoking pot for years. It’s horrible on the lungs. Just ask Michael Savage...Anyway, it’s a gateway drug which is reason enough to keep it illegal.
I am sorry you have lost friends to this drug. My brothers both have been addicted to it for years. It does diminish ambition and lust for life, I am told.
Name just one! I am calling BS on that statement, because there are absolutely no stats to back it up. I smoked lots of it in my youth (and beyond), and know it's effects. You cannot die from marijuana. Sorry... you must be confused, or just another anti-whatever (you don't like).
The #1 gateway! <
It contains more tar than tobacco. While it’s not chainsmoked in the same manner as cigarettes, it still does a number on the lungs.
So depending on how often one smokes marijuana, one can end up just as bad, even worse, than a person who smokes tobacco. Since cigarettes carry a risk of death over the years, so too does marijuana. The difference is, marijuana being less addictive than tobacco, people are far more likely to stop smoking marijuana before it kills them.
Yep!
...and your other "assumptions" are based on what? A does not equal B... just because someone posits it!
Crystal meth is so easy to manufacture, however, that when we successfully restrict the supply, domestic manufacturers will take over more of the production.
I honestly don't know why we import most of our crystal meth; I could whip up a batch of it in my bathtub after a quick trip to the store. I'd be a complete idiot to do so, given the significant risk of an explosion if I made a mistake, but I could do it.
My personal guess is that the meth is being manufactured by Mexican drug cartels, and distributed through hispanic gangs. If this is correct, then once we seal the border, the gangs will shift manufacture to local sites, and, once we break them up, manufacture will shift to an ad-hoc organization of addicts.
Meth is such a problem because it's so easy to make and so addictive; it's why it's infamous in the small towns, where the import of drugs is more difficult, similar to Marijuana.
Closing the border will certainly help, but it won't end the threat that Meth presents. Personally, I think we'll only succeed in that when we jail the adult addicts; they're the ones who are most likely to hit the intersection of knowledge and motive necessary to manufacture crystal meth domestically.
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