Thread: Deputies raid Castle Rock pot farm (Mexican Cartel)

Deputies raid Castle Rock pot farm
By JULIE COPELAND
Sentinel staff writer

July 14, 2005

CASTLE ROCK â€â€

Following are 3 of many more articles about this subject. The feds DO NOT CARE. After all these "guest workers" are need in agriculture!


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GREEN CARDS AND GANGS
Siskiyou County, California, Feb. 26, 2005

They come from Mexico for jobs by way of a document called a “green card�. Such immigrants are termed “legal permanent Residents� with many of the same rights as US citizens outlined here:http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/PermRes.htm

Today Siskiyou county Sheriff Rick Riggins and Captain Mike Murphy presented a slide show and details of Marijuana growing operations on federal forest land as a warning to residents of the dangers of happening across one of these farms. These operations are spearheaded by various Latino gangs, one being the powerful, well armed MS-13 gang that began in El Salvador. Sheriff Riggins stated that his biggest problem in combating this scourge is his office being labeled, "racist".

On Sept. 11, 2004, one such farm was busted by the Sheriff with help from BLM and the forest service netting thousands of plants and several Mexicans who either held green cards or were awol from the Mexican military and in this country illegally. These raids are no simple task as the terrain is nearly insurmountable and usually remote, however one growing operation was within 2 miles of the city limits of Etna, California. Resources are limited in such small counties, with little help from federal officials, even though this organized criminal enterprise has been going on in these mountains for many years. Homeland Security says such operations are not their concern.

The gangs are back this year getting ready for next falls harvest to be distributed across the US. Their supplies and equipment will be brought in from the cities and deliveries to replenish them are undertaken at night every few weeks. The farms are guarded at all times.

Slides of the “camps� complete with a “hooch� for living were shown. Huge pits are dug, one big enough for an SUV, for garbage and waste. The trees are cut or skinned to pile “moats� around the farms to camouflage them. Black irrigation pipe is buried for miles to get water to the plants. The environment on our national lands is being degraded by these operations, destroying habitat and watershed purity.


We saw the AK-47’s, axes, shovels, a . 22 rifle with the name “ Los Pleves� scratched on the stock. We saw notebooks of the growers with markings of MS-13 and a drawing of a Lexus that one “immigrant� intended to buy with the drug profits.

Most of the farms appear to be run by the same organizations mostly through the Mexican Mafia year after year. Though a few are busted, a substantive dent has not been made and they know they can operate here more safely and profitably than in Mexico and there is no worry of getting the product back into the states.

Across the border in Oregon, the story is the same. The Sheriffs of Jackson, Josephine and Klamath County work together to find the farms and arrest the perpetrators. All have been Mexican so far, most with green cards. These same gangs also brew Methanphetimine to finance their organized crime activities during off season.

We do not need yet another “guest worker� program to supply dangerous gangs with recruits. We need to find out why these people were ever allowed in this country in the first place and how to keep more of them out.

TheTownCrier@gmail.com 2/26/05

++++++++++++++++++ Gangland Michelle Malkin March 2, 2005

First Lady Laura Bush is leading a new initiative "to help America's youth overcome the danger of gang influence and involvement." With all due respect to the first lady, this is a job best left to law enforcement professionals willing to get tough, get dirty and crack heads. From the suburbs to our national forests, savage criminal alien gangs are infiltrating America and luring young recruits. Compassionate conservatism ain't gonna stop them.

As many law enforcement sources have been informing me, native gangs such as the Bloods and Crips have nothing on the recent wave of criminal alien enterprises settling across the heartland. Recent enforcement action in New York demonstrates the scope of the problem. Last month in New York, 41 criminal aliens with felony convictions were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a single day as part of a joint public safety initiative between ICE and the U.S. Probation Office of the Eastern District of New York.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the aliens arrested in New York -- half of whom were here illegally -- include citizens of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Trinidad, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. The operation targeted criminal aliens with prior felony convictions for "murder, firearms trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, fraud, false statements, receipt of stolen property, producing false identity documents, copyright infringement and other federal felonies."

Martin D. Ficke, ICE special agent-in-charge in New York, vowed: "These are the criminals who turn the American dream into a nightmare, and they will not be given the chance to cause more harm."

A nationwide tracking system for criminal alien felons would help this effort, but to date no such program exists.

In Chicago, ICE agents and local cops specializing in gang-related activity undertook a similar operation across Chicago's western suburbs targeting foreign-born members of violent Hispanic street gangs. A two-day campaign netted 19 criminal alien gangsters -- mostly Mexican nationals with extensive criminal histories, including convictions for drugs, aggravated assault, firearms and theft. Over the past five years, ICE agents on Chicago's Violent Gang Task Force have arrested more than 375 known gang members.

The most notorious criminal alien gang enterprise on the American landscape is Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, the El Salvadoran-based syndicate engaged in murder, drug trafficking, and human smuggling across Central America and the United States. MS-13 members, many of them juveniles, have been implicated in gang rapes, machete mutilations and cop killings on both coasts. According to Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins, MS-13 paraphernalia and weaponry have been discovered deep on federal forest land in northern California, where Latino gangs have established massive marijuana-growing operations.

(SNIP)
Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com http://www.townhall.com/columnists/mich ... 0302.shtml +++++++++++++++++++

Norte o Gangs Moving North

By Barry R. Clausen Pioneer Press, Etna, Ca.

January 2005

During the last several years there have been a large volume of raids on Mexican Mafia marijuana gardens throughout our country. Information is now available on who these Mafia gang families are. In Northern California “Norte o� gangs are invading many cities and rural communities. One of their identifying pieces of clothing is a red bandana or a San Francisco 49ers bomber jacket while their counterparts; the Sore o’s from the south wear a blue bandana.

The Norteno’s are comprised of any Hispanic gang member north of Fresno. Lau and Pulido along with Nuestra members being most prevalent in Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama and other northern counties. According to documents these organized families are believed responsible for the murders of upwards of 300 of their own Mexican brothers.

Northern California has been and will continue to be one of the most desirable areas for these cartels/gangs to produce their marijuana crops as a result of the hot weather and access to the I-5 corridor.

Marijuana Eradication Teams (MET) are comprised of both local and federal agents. At the conclusion of this last summers growing season, MET agents from the Siskiyou County Sheriff Department, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management made arrests in Merced, California. Unprocessed marijuana from Northern California gardens were sent to an isolated barn just off of I-5 in Merced where one raid resulted in the arrests of 64 Mexican Nationals connected to the Pulido Family, the seizure of 20 weapons including automatics, two pounds of meth and over 4,300 pounds of marijuana.

Ceres, California is just 50 miles north of Merced and on January 12, 2005 that town became the scene of the shooting of two Ceres Police Officers. During a gun battle with police Andres Raya allegedly injured Officer Sam Ryno and killed Sgt. Howard Stevenson. Raya a member of the “Norte o’s� is also a 19-year-old Marine that had recently returned from Iraq. Another former Marine and a member of the Nuestra Family is Gerald “Pistol� Rubalcaba is currently in Pelican Bay State Prison following the “hit� on another inmate while he was at Susanville’s California Correctional Center, which authorities say he was held responsible for.

In Siskiyou County there have been threats against local residents of the county. According to Sheriff Rick Riggins, a Hispanic marijuana grower held a man and his son at gunpoint. The grower took down their driver’s license information and they were told there would be consequences if they said anything.

Two years ago Sheriff Riggins said, “We lost $1.5 million from our budget and this year we lost over $900,000 last year.� In 2005 Riggings faces another problem – the increased in cost for helicopter flying time. The company that supplies the helicopter for Siskiyou County is increasing costs by $200 per hour and he also facing additional budget cuts.

Sheriff Riggins has been effective with his MET operations even with the budget cuts. His community awareness program is allowing more citizens to become involved. “We have had more citizen reports this last year than any other time,� Riggins told the Pioneer Press. People can report illegal activity without becoming involved. “We don’t even need their name, all they have to do is give us a direction and we will investigate,� said the Sheriff. Last year we investigated the Lau and Pulido families. Next year the sheriff has plans to investigate other arms of the Norte o families.

Riggins used an example from this last year, were there was a tip to sheriff officials, which resulted in a raid only 2 miles from the Etna City limits where over 3,000 plants were seized. This resulted in a police chase of an armed Mexican national who eventually eluded capture.

Redding Police Department, Sergeant John Hawkins of the Anti Gang Enforcement unit points out that in Redding, “There is an increase in Hispanic Gang involvement and there is also an increase in drug involvement in this area.� Hawkins is hopeful that the existing nation wide problem in urban communities is something we not see in Northern California. Commander Dan Callahan of the Shasta County Narcotics Task Force emphasized, “There is no end of crystal meth in the area.�

In Tehama County the drug problem with youth has caused devastation to many families. With Meth being the drug of choice by county youth, one only has to look at the problems that meth has created with the minors that are now incarcerated in the Tehama County Juvenile Justice Center.

Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker has the same financial problems that all other sheriffs are facing. His department does what they can, but in order to be totally effective all counties need more resources and in addition community involvement has become most important.

In Tehama County there are know members of the Norte o’s and the number of youth involved with this known criminal enterprise is increasing. One of those claiming to be Norte o is Gabriel Farias (1. In the past, Farias has been under investigation for possession of automatic weapons. There were no formal charges filed. He is currently being held in the Tehama County Jail under $175,000 bail. He is being investigated for conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, kidnapping, firearms violations and making criminal threats.

In Del Norte County Detective Sergeant Bill Steven explained that Del Norte County is financial strapped and as a result his drug enforcement team is at a bare minimum with both resources and manpower. Stevens did acknowledge the meth problem in his county and is hopeful that when the California budget crisis is over there will be help forthcoming. He was positive that in the future there would be changes made to help eradicate many of these illegal organizations.

A hopeful side of drug investigations comes from the Yurok Tribal Police Chief of Public Safety, Mike Ross. Ross has 40 years in law enforcement including his two terms as Sheriff in Del Norte County. He was with the Sonoma County Sheriff Department, holds a masters degree in Law Enforcement and consults to other agencies. Ross verified that there has been a drug problem in the entire area for years and that, “Meth has been the white drug of choice during that time.�

“We are aware that in the past and currently there is a drug problem up river [Klamath] but our information is non-specific. The locals want it stopped but they don’t want involvement,� said Ross. He went on to explain that the Tribe has adopted a no-tolerance drug policy and, “The Tribe is looking at a grant that will target drug manufacturing along the river, on tribal grounds and near the Tribes boundaries.� With the grant in place, one of Ross’s goals is to assign three marine deputies to work the 44 miles of the Klamath River between the Towns of Klamath and Weitchpec, California. The goal is to obtain intelligence information and to ultimately curtail the flow of drugs from that area.

Just across the border between California and Oregon is the town of Klamath, Oregon where the problem is a little different. The concern there is not only local drug producers but also the flow of drugs from California. As Officer James Williams with the Interagency Narcotics Team stated, “We have a lot of Hispanic gangs bringing narcotics in from California.�

The trial of money from these Mexican gangs through drug sales, prostitution, extortion and other gang related activities has now led to Pelican Bay State Prison where some of the money is being laundered. Pelican Bay authorities have acknowledged that inmates have accepted checks and money orders from Mexican drug families and distributed the funds to their own family members. According to a November 22, 2004 Associated Press story, “One gang member told authorities he spent upwards of $60,000 one year on his children’s college fund.�

All law enforcement agents interviewed agree, these dealers know no boundaries; there are no county lines or state lines. Whatever it takes to sell drugs and make money is acceptable. In California the problem has become a “major epidemic� and needs to be stopped.