are there really Mexican Drug Cartels up in the Sierra Nevada hills?

[annm4peace]

A major operation to confiscate marijuana in eastern Fresno County is currently underway. Save Our Sierra (SOS) is, according to Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, targeting growers who are affiliated with Mexican Drug Cartels. These growers, again according to Mims, are destroying public lands with their drug operations. When questioned, Mims would not name one Mexican Drug Cartel involved or say how many of them where active in growing marijuana in Fresno County. Skeptics think operation SOS is more about justifying bloated law enforcement budgets by scaring people into thinking that an environmental calamity is being perpetrated by violent Mexican Drug Cartels.

See the full story on Indymedia (photos too): http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/25/18612387.php

[bemildred]

1. Grows on public land are a real problem.

LA Times had a good piece on the issue a year or so back.
Whether "Mexican drug cartels" are involved I don't know.
Seems like more trouble and less profit than the big boys would want.
The proper solution, in any case is legalization, regulation, and taxation, which will remove the incentive for this sort of grow.

[proud patriot]

2. this was on the local fox affiliate's coverage tonight

:hi:

[Throd]

3. Apparently, such is the case in El Dorado County.

Today's local paper has a story about some people who were arrested for distributing a large amount of locally grown marijuana from a house in El Dorado Hills.

[Jeep789]

4. Find it hard to believe myself. nt

[petronius]

5. I suspect it's a little of both. There are pot farms on public lands, and some of the

people affiliated with those farms are violent. However, the problem doesn't justify a multi-million dollar SWAT industry, and hikers shouldn't tremble in terror the moment they step off a trail.

If Fresno County really wants to track down people destroying the environment, they'd have better luck scouring local boardrooms rather than the backwoods...

[mackerel]

6. That's meth country.

[Xithras]

7. Yes, there are

And yes, they do a lot of environmental damage. I can't speak to Fresno County, but I know that cartel growers in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties have redirected streams to water plants, clear brush and undergrowth to open up growing spaces, and routinely dump leftover fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.

There have been many incidents in the Sierra's over the past several years where hikers have stumbled on grow operations and have been assaulted or even kidnapped. One guy in Yosemite several years ago was tied to a tree and held prisoner until the guys running the grow operation cleared it out. When they left, they left him tied to the tree (he got loose eventually).

It's no joke. Drug enforcement on the border has become tighter, so they're growing here now.