Thread: 80% of pot crop invades U.S. parks (Mexican Cartels)

80% of pot crop invades parks

By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
CHICAGO — Mexican drug cartels are stepping up marijuana cultivation in national parks and on other public land, endangering visitors and damaging the environment, law enforcement and National Park Service officials say.

John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says 75%-80% of marijuana grown outdoors is on state or federal land. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says there were more than 4.8 million marijuana-plant seizures at outdoor sites in 2006.

Tighter border controls make it harder to smuggle marijuana into the USA, so more Mexican drug networks are growing crops here, Walters says.

"We are finding more marijuana gardens in the park year after year," says Jim Milestone, superintendent of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in Northern California.

"We're dealing with some bad characters," Milestone says. "We are arresting people … who have criminal records in Mexico, and almost all of them are here illegally with false papers."

The number of marijuana plants confiscated on public land in California grew from 40% to 75% of total seizures between 2001-2007, says the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting task force.

Hunting and cleaning up after pot growers diverts resources at a time when parks face chronic funding shortfalls, says Laine Hendricks of the non-profit National Parks Conservation Association.

Recent busts:

• A site with 16,742 marijuana plants was raided last month in North Cascades National Park in Washington state. It was operated by a Mexican organization, says park Superintendent Chip Jenkins.

People living at the site downed trees, dammed creeks and left 1,000 pounds of trash, he says.

• Thousands of marijuana plants were seized last month in Utah's Dixie National Forest. Ignacio Rodriguez was charged with drug and immigration offenses, says Michael Root, a DEA special agent.

The problem is worst on the West Coast, but law-enforcement pressure on growers, Root says, "has pushed them out this way."

• Last month, officials burned thousands of marijuana plants seized in Cook County, Ill., forest preserves. Drug organizations use the Chicago area as a base for distributing marijuana across the Midwest, says DEA special agent Joanna Zoltay.

• In July and August, officials seized more than 340,000 plants, some from Sequoia National Forest and Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks.

Ranger Alexandra Picavet says Mexican cartels are responsible for many sites in those parks. They leave behind car batteries and propane tanks and poach deer and birds, she says.

Visitors to wilderness areas are at risk, says Shasta County, Calif., Sheriff Tom Bosenko. "We have found marijuana within a half-mile of public beaches and very short distances from campgrounds and highways," he says. "It's a shame."
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• Last month, officials burned thousands of marijuana plants seized in Cook County, Ill., forest preserves. Drug organizations use the Chicago area as a base for distributing marijuana across the Midwest, says DEA special agent Joanna Zoltay.

Soo many punchlines coming rushing to my brain haha. I nominate this for Letterman's Top 10 Countdown - What are Chicago politicians smoking?

miguelina wrote:

Soo many punchlines coming rushing to my brain

Me too
It would behoove these agents to invite all pot smokers to inhale fumes from the crop, because these crop devastations will probably drive the price up out of sight.

Guess this may be news in Chicago but we've know about it here for a long time.

Ranger Alexandra Picavet says Mexican cartels are responsible for many sites in those parks. They leave behind car batteries and propane tanks and poach deer and birds, she says.

And there's an area for the enrivonmentalists to get upset about eh? Not. Just like we don't hear from them about the heaps of garbage along the border either.

What we need are 1000's of more federal agents. That is what we really need.

Mexican cartels running pot farms in U.S. national forest - CNN.com Authorities say Mexican drug cartels send illegals to grow marijuana in forest ...

See photos of pot farm sweep in heart of U.S. national treasure » ...
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www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/08/pot.eradication/

"We're dealing with some bad characters," Milestone says. "We are arresting people … who have criminal records in Mexico, and almost all of them are here illegally with false papers."

A reporter for Fox News about a year ago maybe more reported on DEA agents being fired on in Mendicino County, CA. It happens all the time up there. Yes, were are the environmentalists. They aren't worried about our forests, or the border, just the fence. Shows where their money is coming from. I am CONVINCED that Baca, Beccera, Sanchez, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Newsom, Villaraigosa are in the pockets of these cartels in CA. I bet if there was in investigation in any state that had this problem and they FOLLOWED THE MONEY. We'd see corrupt politicians lined up for the drug cartel monies. Why do you think the border politicians are fighting the fence?

Pot is growing in our National Parks? It figures that illegal Mexicans decided to use our parks as pot farms. The audacity of these people amazes me to no end.