pandabear
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Submitted photo/Courtesy of the Humboldt County Sheriff's OfficeAlmost half a billion dollars of marijuana in an outdoor grow was found by aerial surveillance efforts conducted by Campaign Against Marijuana Planting personnel from the California Department of Justice.
Reefer sadness
by Heather Muller , 8/10/2007
Federal, state and local law enforcement officials said adios this week to almost half a billion dollars worth of marijuana found growing on public and private timberlands along the countys sparsely populated eastern edge.
A news release issued by the Humboldt County Sheriffs Office stated the outdoor growing operation contained 134,082 plants, ranging in height from 1 to 3 feet, with an estimated street value at harvest of $469 million making it by far, according to Sheriffs Sgt. Wayne Hanson, the single largest pot bust in the countys history.
No arrests were made
but officials believed the grow was operated by a Mexican drug cartel.We know that just by the magnitude of it and the growing style, Hanson said. They literally clear-cut portions of the forest to plant these massive amounts of marijuana, with no effort at all to hide it. Its blatant.
Six agencies participated in eradication efforts, which began after Sheriffs Deputy Mark Peterson spotted the plants growing in dozens of groves, located roughly between Dinsmore and Burnt Ranch, during a routine reconnaissance flight two weeks ago.
It was certainly the largest one of these Ive seen in my career, said Hanson, who has been with the Sheriffs Office for 24 years.
The announcement came on the heels of four days of eradication efforts by 20 personnel from the state Department of Justices Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, the Sheriffs Office, the Humboldt County Drug Task Force, the Eureka Police Department, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Hanson said the plants were cut, and those with usable bud were airlifted to an undisclosed location and destroyed. Stalks and leaves were destroyed where they lay.
Photos included with the release showed enormous piles of trash left behind by growers as they beat a hasty retreat.
Hanson said he didnt know if the garbage would ever be removed because the dump site is located more than a mile from the nearest road.
But the environmental impacts aside, Hanson said the cartel growers are just plain dangerous.
There are people armed with SKS rifles running around our national forests growing massive amounts of marijuana, at $3,500 a pound, he said.
You can argue all you want about whether marijuana is a dangerous drug, but pray to God some forester or land surveyor or mom and dad out with the kids on U.S. Forest Service property doesnt bump into one of these growers and end up dead.
