Posted on 03/01/2010 8:20:22 AM PST by george76
Some Using Armed Guards, Trip Wires To Safeguard Plots.
Not far from Yosemite's waterfalls and in the middle of California's redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.
Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, but Mexican traffickers have taken it to a whole new level: using armed guards and trip wires to safeguard sprawling plots that in some cases contain tens of thousands of plants offering a potential yield of more than 30 tons of pot a year.
"Just like the Mexicans took over the methamphetamine trade, they've gone to mega, monster gardens.
Local, state and federal agents found about a million more pot plants each year between 2004 and 2008, and authorities say an estimated 75 percent to 90 percent of the new marijuana farms can be linked to Mexican gangs.
In 2008 alone, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, police across the country confiscated or destroyed 7.6 million plants from about 20,000 outdoor plots.
Growing marijuana in the U.S. saves traffickers the risk and expense of smuggling their product across the border and allows gangs to produce their crops closer to local markets.
The Sequoia National Forest in central California is covered in a patchwork of pot fields, most of which are hidden along mountain creeks and streams, far from hiking trails. It's the same situation in the nearby Yosemite, Sequoia and Redwood national parks.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedenverchannel.com ...
Oh sure, you Texans takes care of business. Don't mess with Texas....right..
Just a few years ago, when Bush was presidente in 2006
500,000 illegal aliens march on Dallas Texas making demands and threats while pushing foreign flags in the Texans faces.
“Part of me wonders how much of this is simply propaganda put forth by by the government in order to justify the WOD.”
Stop wondering, see post 26, it’s a sad reality. Most of our local resources go to fighting these plantations run by Mexican narco terror cartels. And yes, It’s very dangerous.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+800+miles
No offense to our hunters but they strike me as the type to prefer when their prey does not shoot back (or set Claymore mines in anticipation of their arrival.)
;)
“
If it was meth, our home-grown biker gangs would have taken care of the problem. “
Well, I wish they’d get on with it! Most of the meth is now being brewed by the Mexican cartels in YOUR home town in the off season when they aren’t growing thousands of acres of weed. Mexico imports tons of the ingredient (which we’ve made illegal to get here!), brings it in on the backs of ‘people who are just here to work’.
Maybe but the thing is, instead of justifying it (especially for pot, jesus) it only makes me think legalization is more necessary than ever.
Sure, it may not totally eliminate the problem and once a growing operation is setup in some park, it may still be profitable but a concentrated effort to clean it up would render any new operations fairly unprofitable (in a legal environment.)
Yet again, the government causes a problem with a law, which then becomes EVEN worse than some predicted (with WoD) and it would seem that LIBERTY is the best way around this.
Look at it this way. I think we can all agree that President Obama is incompetent. If he legally started smoking pot, do you really think he would get any more competent?
(I wish Free Republic had smileys, as this post would be alot funnier with the right smileys in the right places).
“Growing marijuana in the U.S. saves traffickers the risk and expense of smuggling their product across the border and allows gangs to produce their crops closer to local markets.”
See photos of these grows at post #26
correct link to photos: http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+800+miles
If it were legal, then legal US farmers would run them out of business.
Or they would take over legal US farms. Not that they'll be stopped, or anything.
Don’t feel bad, they do it here in eastern Wa. state also.
Gang members of violent gangs should be shot on sight.
Can anyone give me a reasonable reason why this ISN’T currently done?
What do you think, these gangs are criminal because they want to deal drugs and drugs happen to be illegal?
You’d be wrong.
These gangs pursue criminal actions because they are first and foremost criminals. They choose crime for the high-risk:profit margin.
Legalizing them will only shift them to another criminal enterprise.
Gee, I wonder what that would be.
Well, since so many “Legalize It Now” claim massive economic benefits from legalizing it, and given that many who say legalize it also claim that the cost of drugs will pay for the rehab of the many who become addicted, and given the history of taxes on booze and cigarettes, it’s a given that, even if it were legalized, it would still be very expensive, THERE WILL STILL BE A MARKET FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS.
Agreed. See my Post #54.
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“The Sequoia National Forest in central California is covered in a patchwork of pot fields,”
Daisy Cutters.
Give all Public Federal land back to the states. Let’s then sell the land and build sub division on the former public land. States will then have a bigger property tax base in order to fund more pork and bigger pensions for state employees. See how that works. Problem solved.
Um....Respectfully, I think Sparticus is referring to the good new legislation that Senator Coburn was able to get passed which now allows people to carry firearms in national parks, according to the laws of the state in which the park resides.
But your statement about the nuts running the asylum are appropriate!
I guess the practice of claiming territory by the right of conquest is alive and well.
I also thought (mistakenly, obviously) that the whole purpose of DoD was to defend the country. However the leaders of this country apparently believe that when armed militants hole up on US territory and defend their position and kill US citizens, it's nothing unusual and not a crime at all.
And nice to see that the democracy found its way into DoD, so now soldiers get to vote on what missions to accept or refuse. It's not like they have commanders... well, maybe they indeed don't have one, after all.
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