| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Cartels are growing marijuana illegally in California ‐ and there's a war brewing |
| 2017-04-09 |
| [Business Insider] In the gray half-light of dawn, eight figures creep through the dry pine forest near Quincy, California. Seven of them wear camo uniforms bearing the logos of various government agencies: U.S. Forest Service, National Guard, California Fish & Wildlife, Plumas County Sheriff. Most have blackened faces and assault rifles at the ready. An 11-year-old Belgian Malinois named Phebe and her K9 handler lead the way. Number eight is tall and dressed in black, with a rumpled bush hat and a Springfield Armory 9mm pistol in a hip holster. With a kaffiyeh wrapped under a dark beard, and eyebrows (in his words) "like two caterpillars about to mate," Dr. Mourad Gabriel could pass as a local interpreter on a Special Forces raid if this were Iraq or Afghanistan. Instead, he’s a wildlife biologist accompanying law-enforcement agents on an illegal marijuana farm bust. The group traverses hillsides, fords streams, tiptoes through thickets of fern and willow, trying not to snap twigs or shake saplings. Radios crackle with whispers. Tiptoeing through rough terrain is slow going: It takes almost four hours to go three miles. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #7 The Federal government has a couple of bills in the House which provide for taxing marijuana. Essentially, oversight of weed would be transferred out of the DEA to the BATF and handled similar to alcohol. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2017-04-09 22:01 |
| #6 Something tells me Round-up Ready marijuana isn't popular in California. So these operations should be easy enough to eliminate once found. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2017-04-09 21:22 |
| #5 I can almost guess which side the governing bodies of California will side with In this case, hopefully the side that puts money in their coffers (i.e. taxes). Sometimes it's just about the money. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2017-04-09 17:32 |
| #4 Its California. If its "war", I can almost guess which side the governing bodies of California will side with. |
| Posted by: Crusader 2017-04-09 16:06 |
| #3 A war, huh? Then fight it like a war. Clearing these growing sites certainly doesn't sound like a job for civilians. How about sending platoons of Army Rangers to do it? Surround the sites before the growers can escape and then deal with them as the enemy combatants they are. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-04-09 15:50 |
| #2 Gov't doesn't like competition? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2017-04-09 13:29 |
| #1 Beards, kaffiyeh's, and Oakley's indicate you really mean business. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-04-09 12:26 |