Thread: Illegal Crops Creep Into the Suburbs

Illegal Crops Creep Into the Suburbs
Increased Border Security Forces Growers To Change Locations, Officials Say

By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 5, 2007; A14



BARRINGTON, Ill. -- This town of 10,000 in the northwest Chicago suburbs is home to upscale subdivisions, one of the wealthiest Zip codes in the country, and borders a leafy forest preserve popular with bird-watchers, hikers and runners.

So, to many people, it was a shock when federal and state agents raided the preserve two weeks ago and eradicated 18 fields of about 60,000 marijuana plants, some of them 8 feet tall.

Marijuana crops on public land are old news in Appalachia and the Pacific Northwest. But drug enforcement agents and drug policy analysts say tighter security along the U.S.-Mexico border since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has led to an increase in domestic marijuana cultivation closer to urban areas such as the one at the Crabtree Nature Center.

"Obviously, it saves the drug organizations money when they can grow it here in the U.S., instead of smuggling it across the border," said Joanna Zoltay, spokeswoman for the Chicago field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "Since 9/11, the border is definitely tighter. There have always been crops grown on public land, but since 9/11, there's been a steady increase."

Lloyd Easterling, acting assistant chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said 145,438 pounds of marijuana were seized at the border during the fiscal year that ended June 30, up from 138,822 pounds in the previous year.

The deployment of National Guard troops to the border in Operation Jump Start has put pressure on drug smugglers, he said.

"We've added additional manpower, more tactical infrastructure, more technology in the field; we have more people and more things in more places than we've ever had before, so it's definitely a lot harder" to get drugs across, he said.

Zoltay said marijuana crops are discovered in suburban Chicago preserves every year, but the plant count is usually in the hundreds.

In 2006, more than 4.8 million marijuana plants were found on public land, up from 3.9 million in 2005 and 2.9 million in 2004, Zoltay said, noting that plants seized from public land outnumber indoor seizures 10 to 1.

Large operations in suburban areas are still rare, DEA officials said, but the pressure on the border could change that.

"You're not normally going to see drug-growing near urban areas where it will raise flags," said Ramona Sanchez, spokeswoman for the DEA's Phoenix field office. "But drug traffickers will do whatever they can."

The marijuana found in the Crabtree preserve, which is close to several interstates, would have been worth more than $30 million on the street, the DEA estimates. Agents also found a campsite stocked with tables, canned and perishable food, cots, a tent, an irrigation system powered by a generator using pond water, and an underground bunker with logs blocking the entrance.

"It was pretty elaborate and sophisticated," Zoltay said. "These guys were there for the long haul."

The Crabtree marijuana operation began to unravel on June 10 when an intern studying foxes for a local conservation organization saw three men pumping water from the pond in an overgrown part of the preserve. He reported it to county officials, and helicopter surveillance soon revealed the illegal activity.

On July 24, law enforcement officers from more than 50 agencies -- state, local and forest preserve police, Army and Air National Guard and the DEA -- closed in to seize the crop and destroy it.

They arrested two men dressed in camouflage clothing at the site and charged them with state felony counts of cultivating marijuana and criminal damage to land. The plants were cut down and burned.

"Everybody is pretty startled this was going on this close to Barrington," Barrington Police Chief Jeff Lawler said.

At a sports bar several miles from the preserve, Chris White said he often walks in the area and recently considered bushwhacking in a spot he thinks was close to the marijuana operation.

"I'm glad I didn't," he said. "It's funny; I was just thinking that area would be a good place for homeless people to live or something. Little did I know."

White, 45, and several friends who grew up in the area, said they were not surprised by the news.

One man who would not give his name said that as a youngster he would pick "garbage" marijuana being grown on the shores of a nearby lake.

And Mike Pallone, who played in the preserve as a child, said, "I've always heard stories; there's a lot more than you think."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01388.html

It's going on here too!

Aug. 3, 2007, 3:33AM
Third major marijuana field busted in Dallas area


© 2007 The Associated Press

DALLAS — Authorities have discovered a large marijuana grove in the vicinity of a Dallas County lake — the third such find in two weeks.

Police were using bulldozers Thursday to cut their way through a dense and swampy forest to reach the plants.

Terri Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Agency, declined to estimate the size of the operation until agents were able to get a closer look.

"It appears to be a very large marijuana grove," she said.

Wyatt said it was too early to know whether the grove discovered Wednesday near Mountain Creek Lake is connected to two others found in July.

"We've been busy for two weeks solid now, out exhausting our manpower pulling up marijuana," she said.

On July 20, authorities found a 7-acre marijuana field with more than 10,450 plants near the border of Grand Prairie and Dallas. The plants would be worth as much $5 million if grown to maturity, the DEA has said.

On July 29, a field of 1,600 marijuana plants was found within a few miles.

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The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, http://www.dfw.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5024274.html