Thread: Sheriff's office honored (Fighting Mexican Drug cartels!)

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/articles/2 ... 534889.txt


Sheriff’s office honored
By BRAD SMITH
Daily News Staff Writer
Published: Monday, October 23, 2006 6:17 PM CDT

Siskiyou Daily News photo/Brad Smith Sheriff Rick Riggins holds the plaque that was presented to the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office last Monday. The SCSO and several other law enforcement agencies were recoginized for their efforts in combatting cartel-operated marijuana “plantations.”

YREKA — In Medford, Ore. last Monday, Oregon Republican Congressman Greg Walden presented Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins and Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters each with a plaque, commending both men and their agencies for their efforts in combatting drug cartels.

For Riggins, it was a proud moment for the entire Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m proud to say that I work with the best people in law enforcement,” Riggins said. “This department has worked hard, very hard, to eradicate these illegal marijuana grows.”

Both Riggins and Winters have forged an unique pact between their agencies. The sheriffs decided to combine their numbers and resources in an effort to fight encroaching drug cartels.

“What Sheriff Winters and I did was the best thing to do. In a time of slashed budgets and limited finding from government grants, teaming up against the cartels was the most logical choice,” Riggins said.

It was a choice that caught the attention of many, including Walden and even CNN’s Lou Dobbs.


Dobbs sent a news team to chronicle a raid here in Siskiyou County. That story aired on CNN, in two different segments, garnering national attention.

“That media coverage showed the nation the level of the cartels’ incursion,” Riggins said. “It showed how brazen they are and what we’re up against.”

Many took notice — including Congressman Greg Walden.


On the House floor, Walden said the “task force of over 175 people and 19 agencies led by Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters and Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins dealt a telling blow on the cartels’ illicit activities on our public lands.”

That “telling blow” included depriving the cartels of more than $320 million dollars and several tons of marijuana plants.

According to Riggins and other law enforcement officials, most of that money goes into the cartels’ other venture: Methamphetamine labs operating in Mexico. Current intelligence indicates that the cartels are transporting meth across the border.


“We’ve sent the cartels a message,” Riggins said. “If they try to operate here in our county — we will come after them. We will shut them down.”

For Riggins, it’s also a matter of public safety.

“The cartels are operating on public lands,” he said. “Hikers and hunters are at risk because some of them can accidentally stumble onto marijuana growing operation.” Riggins said that there have been documented accounts of people encountering such operations.


“Innocent people have been hurt,” Riggins said. “The cartels are ruthless. They don’t care who gets in their way. The cartels will intimidate, hurt or even kill anyone who poses a threat to their operations.”

Which leads to the possibility of escalation. With the cartels’ loss of tons of marijuana — hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth — will they go further to protect their operations with more lethal traps or even put up a fight?

“It’s a possibility,” Riggins stated. “It’s always a possibility. We’ve found weapons and ammunition in the past. The growers ran — didn’t put up a fight at all. Will they change their tactics? They might. But our Special Response Team is trained for that sort of thing as is the Jackson SRT.”


Riggins added that the resolve of the SCSO and its allies is stronger than the cartels’.

“This is our home,” he said. “It’s not their home, their land. We don’t want them here. We will hit them hard at any given opportunity and keep hitting them until they stop.”

It’s a fight that Riggins isn’t fighting alone.


“You know, when I received this plaque, I did it for the entire department, for each and everyone of my deputies and detectives. I do work with the best,” he said.

Working with people like that, Riggins feels, is the proudest thing he’s ever done and he doesn’t need a plaque to tell him that.
~~~~~~~~

Thanks to Casey Wian of CNN's Lou Dobbs for contacting us on our important story about Mexican Drug Cartels operating in Siskiyou County, Calif. Sheriff Rick Riggins is our hero.
Trackback TownCrier articles on marijuana farms of the Pacific NW.

http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/ ... miles.html

http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/ ... equal.html

AuntB

Great post thank you

Great news.

I just wish Americans would quit doing drugs so these scumbags would be unemployed.

Originally Posted by Gabriel

I just wish Americans would quit doing drugs so these scumbags would be unemployed.

I just wish we had a massive fence on our border to make it a lot harder for the Scumbags to bring drugs into our country. Instead they just drive right on in, with a little Barbed wire fence.