Mexifornia State Flower - Revisited

[Twoller]

Article date: Wednesday, 7 May 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7388036.stm

Students arrested in US drug raid

Image: Police said some students did little to hide their drug dealing

Twenty-nine people, most of them students, have been arrested in a drugs raid at a university in California.

The raid on Tuesday was part of a year-long operation triggered by the death of a San Diego State University student from a cocaine overdose last year.

In total, police seized several guns, large sums of money, 2kg (4.4lbs) of cocaine and 23kg (51lbs) of marijuana.

Undercover officers found some students openly dealing drugs - one sent a mass text message listing special prices.

During the course of the year-long investigation, a total of 96 people were arrested, including 75 San Diego State University students.

Drug 'sale'

Several of those arrested belonged to university college clubs, known as fraternities, six of which were suspended following Tuesday's raid.

Also among those arrested was a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree, and another who was to receive a master's degree in homeland security, police said.

In the course of the investigation, undercover officers infiltrated seven campus fraternities and discovered that in some, most of the members were aware of organised drug dealing, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said.

Officers purchased cocaine from fraternity members and confirmed that a hierarchy existed for the purpose of selling drugs for money.

The DEA said one fraternity member sent out a mass text message to customers stating that he would be unable to sell cocaine while in Las Vegas for a fraternity event.

The text promoted a cocaine "sale" and listed reduced prices for bulk quantities.

Police began the investigation after Shirley Poliakoff, 19, died from a cocaine overdose on campus in May 2007.

During the course of the investigation, a student from another college died of a cocaine overdose at a fraternity house on campus, the DEA said.

[Twoller]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10811870

29 July 2010

Police seize $1.7bn worth of marijuana in California

Almost half a million marijuana plants were seized Police in California say they have seized $1.7bn worth of marijuana plants in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

They have also arrested 97 people over the past three weeks, most of them Mexican nationals believed to have ties with Mexican drug cartels.

White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said police had found industrial-sized plantations of marijuana.

Experts say Mexican cartels are increasingly growing marijuana in the US, rather than smuggling it there.

450 officers from local, state and federal agencies took part in the raids in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California.

They found more than a hundred locations where marijuana was being grown illegally.

OPERATION TRIDENT

• Continue reading the main story 432,271 marijuana plants destroyed
• 499 pounds processed marijuana seized
• 97 people arrested

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said the marijuana plantations were a danger to local residents, as the organised crime gangs behind them "don't just grow marijuana on our public lands".

"They continue their criminal conduct during their off-season with other illegal drug and violent activities in our local communities," she said.

Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske said "tremendous devastation" had been done by the industrial-sized fields.

He said eradication teams removed thousands of pounds of toxic fertilizers and rubbish from the sites.

1.7 billion dollars for 499 pounds of marijuana and 432,000 plants. How much is that per Snicker's bar? Still an awful lot.

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Originally Posted by Twoller

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7388036.stm

This happened over two years ago.

[Twoller]

Originally Posted by Jeanfromfillmore

This happened over two years ago.

You are right. This is an old article. The article was linked at the bottom of the first article on the huge marijuana bust and I didn't look at the date.

Still, it is worth looking at again. It could have happened yesterday. It could happen again tomorrow. It is all due to our prohibition era approach to the drug problem.

[Ayatollahgondola]

From Fish and Game site today:



http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/news10/20...a-MJ-Raid.html

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG), with support from two other agencies, raided an illegal marijuana garden in Tehama Wildlife Area (TWA) early this morning. Eight thousand marijuana plants were eradicated with an estimated value of $24-32 million. Two 9 mm pistols were recovered from the garden.

Warden Scott Williams, DFG's lead investigator in the operation, headed a team of five game wardens supported by one Special Agent from the Bureau of Land Management and six deputies from the Tehama County Sheriff's Department.

The raid began around 12 a.m. today. A surprise nighttime raid of a pot garden's sleeping area is the most effective way of apprehending suspects in such remote and mountainous conditions. Wardens arrested one suspect, Guillermo Cruz Lopez, 23, of Chiapas, Mexico. A second suspect escaped capture.

Lopez will be charged with cultivating marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale (Health and Safety Code, sections 11358 and 11359) and unlawful activities in a state wildlife area (California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 550[b]). Additional charges will be filed for an illegal water diversion, pollution and other environmental damage. The growers had constructed a cistern for the application of chemical fertilizers or pesticides through the irrigation system. This application method is very dangerous to both wildlife and people who have no idea the water in the pipes is contaminated with chemicals.

TWA, a popular outdoor recreation and hunting area owned by DFG, is east of Red Bluff near the town of Paynes Creek. A hunter discovered and reported a harvested and abandoned marijuana garden in the Antelope Creek drainage during last fall's late season G-1 deer hunt. Game wardens investigated the site and found gardening equipment left behind. The carefully hidden tools and a full irrigation system led them to believe the garden would be used again in the coming spring. DFG began regular surveillance of the garden in March 2010.

Working alongside a federal agent from the Bureau of Land Management and in coordination with Tehama County Sheriff's deputies, DFG wardens observed renewed activity in the garden. Over the course of several months, the wardens were able to locate supply drop locations and map out the garden's infrastructure. Garden workers were also observed tending to the marijuana and retrieving supplies.

Ongoing surveillance indicated increased activity within the garden over the past week, leading the wardens to believe that harvesting had started taking place and processed marijuana was already being removed from the site for distribution.

The tenders of marijuana gardens often possess firearms for personal protection and to illegally take wildlife both for food and to stop animals from damaging the plants. Illegal growers also possess firearms to defend themselves against law enforcement or an unwanted encounter with unwitting outdoor enthusiasts. This creates a grave danger to anyone using state lands set aside for the public's recreational use.

[Rim05]

I would surmise that these gardens are controlled by the Cartels?
I will never know why people will try anything new (drugs of any kind) without knowing what it will do to their bodies or mind. I guess we cannot help everyone.

Glad to hear about any 'grow' being taken down.

[Twoller]

Hmmm... Eight thousand marijuana plants at a black market value of 24-32 million dollars That's 24-32 million divided by 8 thousand for 3-4 thousand dollars a plant.

The more grows they find and bust, the more the black market prices go up. So the stuff they don't find is worth even more. And meanwhile, how much is it costing the taxpayers to have law enforcement running around looking for the stuff being grown mostly by illegal immigrants?

If we decriminalize marijuana, we will have more resources to hunt down illegals so they don't get comfortable enough to do this kind of crap. But of course we are obliged to wait around for them to commit a second crime before we can arrest them for being here illegally. And there are scumbags telling us we can't even do that.

Vote yes on Proposition 19. Destroy the black market in marijuana and watch the cockroaches scramble for crumbs.

[Ayatollahgondola]

Originally Posted by Twoller

Hmmm... Eight thousand marijuana plants at a black market value of 24-32 million dollars That's 24-32 million divided by 8 thousand for 3-4 thousand dollars a plant.

The more grows they find and bust, the more the black market prices go up. So the stuff they don't find is worth even more. And meanwhile, how much is it costing the taxpayers to have law enforcement running around looking for the stuff being grown mostly by illegal immigrants?

If we decriminalize marijuana, we will have more resources to hunt down illegals so they don't get comfortable enough to do this kind of crap. But of course we are obliged to wait around for them to commit a second crime before we can arrest them for being here illegally. And there are scumbags telling us we can't even do that.

Vote yes on Proposition 19. Destroy the black market in marijuana and watch the cockroaches scramble for crumbs.

In legalizing alcohol, we may have removed the crime syndicate from the mix, but the initial problems associated with it remained and grew. Alcoholism remains a big problem in America, and many people who don't use it are injured and killed by those who do each year. The way I see it, we negotiated with the users and got the bad end of the deal. The jails are now full of wife and child beaters, DUI arrestees, Drunk and disorderly arrests, Manslaughter, and many other manifestations of crime born out of the use and abuse of alcohol that when taken in aggregate, dwarf the magnitude of fighting the underworld.

[Patriotic Army Mom]

Saying yes, won't keep it out of the schools! Crap kids sneak in booze too. And cigarettes and porn at times. This would make it easier to sneak it from their parents, or what ever. I've buried several who died at an early age to this stuff, mixed with other stuff, so like Rimo, no one can budge me on this. I don't know what will be the outcome, but it will sure dumb down our children. Even adults. Pot can be addictive. Let the doctors give it out to those that need it, and that will control it.