[pct-l] Illegal Marijuana

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National Parks' Pot Farms Blamed on Cartels 

Mexican drug lords find it easier to  grow in state than import 

by Zachary Coile 
San Francisco Chronicle - November 18,  2005 
Hikers in national parks such as  Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon are 
encountering a danger more hazardous than  bears: illegal marijuana farms run by 
Mexican drug cartels and protected by  booby traps and guards carrying AK-47s.  
National Park Service officials  testified in Congress on Thursday that 
illegal drug production in national  parks, forests and other federal lands had 
grown into a multibillion-dollar  business in recent years -- mostly concentrated 
in California.  
"These activities threaten our  employees, visitors and our mission of 
protecting some of the nation's most  prized natural and cultural resources," Karen 
Taylor-Goodrich, the National Park  Service's associate director for visitor 
and resource protection, told the House  Resources Subcommittee on National 
Parks.  
Last year, National Park Service  officers seized about 60,000 marijuana 
plants, with an estimated street value of  $240 million, from parks in California. 
About 44,000 pot plants were removed  from Sequoia National Park near 
California's Central Valley. Another 10,000  plants were seized in Yosemite National 
Park.  
The Park Service also has found pot  farms and other drug trafficking 
activities in the Santa Monica Mountains  National Recreation Area and the 
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in Shasta  County as well as two Bay Area parks: 
the Golden Gate National Recreation Area  and Point Reyes National Seashore.  
The increasing use of national parks  and other public lands for illegal pot 
farming is part of a major shift in the  marijuana trade. Ten years ago, 
almost all of the state's pot was grown in the  "Emerald Triangle," an area 
encompassing Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity  counties in Northern California, law 
enforcement officials said.  
But Mexican drug cartels now are  seizing on the state's mild climate and 
vast stretches of remote lands to set up  pot farms across California. Tightened 
security on the U.S.-Mexico border has  also convinced many drug gangs it is 
easier to grow marijuana in the state than  to smuggle it into the country.  
Park service officials said the drug  cartels took extreme measures to 
protect their plants, which can be worth $4,000  each. Growers have been known to 
set up booby traps with shotguns. Guards armed  with knives and military-style 
weapons have chased away hikers at gunpoint. In  2002, a visitor to Sequoia was 
briefly detained by a drug grower, who threatened  to harm him if he told 
authorities the pot farm's secret location.  
During a raid of an illegal pot farm in  Santa Clara County in June, a 
California Fish and Game officer was wounded and a  suspect shot and killed.  
"In prior years, guards used to flee  from Park Service law enforcement but 
now stand their ground with leveled guns  using intimidation tactics," Laura 
Whitehouse, the Central Valley program  manager for the National Parks 
Conservation Association, told the committee.  
The illicit pot farms can also cause  environmental damage. Growers often cut 
trees, dig ditches, create crude dams on  streams, and haul in plastic hoses 
and other equipment to irrigate the plants.  Fertilizers and other chemicals 
used by growers pollute watersheds and kill  native species. Last year, the 
Park Service spent $50,000 to clean up tons of  litter, debris and human waste at 
pot farms that were discovered or abandoned.  
Congress approved a slight increase in  funding for Park Service law 
enforcement for next year, $3.6 million, $746,000  of it for drug eradication efforts 
in California parks. But federal and state  officials say they still lack the 
money and personnel to patrol vast areas in  and around the state's parks.  
"It's a $2 billion or a $4 billion  problem, and we're throwing $1 million at 
it," said Supervisor Allen Ishida of  Tulare County, whose deputies seized 
157,000 pot plants on public and private  lands and made 28 arrests this year.  
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., the chairman  of the national parks subcommittee, 
said it would be tough to find more money in  the federal budget as Congress 
deals with rising deficits and is considering  cutting many programs. He urged 
the Park Service to put more officers on drug  eradication instead of "writing 
parking tickets."  
Donald Coelho, the Park Service's chief  of law enforcement, agreed that more 
money was not the only solution. He said a  coordinated strategy by state, 
federal and local law enforcement officials  ultimately could put a dent in the 
Mexican cartels' operations.  
"Sometimes it takes time to work your  way through an organization," Coelho 
said.  
State narcotics officers and the Drug  Enforcement Administration seized a 
record 1.1 million pot plants on public and  private lands in California this 
year, up from 621,000 plants last year, through  an aggressive campaign called 
CAMP, or Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. The  street value of those drugs 
is estimated at $4.5 billion.  
But state and federal officials said  drug growers were adapting quickly -- 
for example, planting smaller pot farms  that are tougher to spot from 
surveillance planes and helicopters. Some growers  have responded to drug raids in 
Sequoia and other parks by moving their farms to  nearby Forest Service or Bureau 
of Land Management lands.  
Without a more comprehensive plan, "we are just shifting the  problem from 
one jurisdiction to another," Ishida said.  
 (http://www.sfgate.com/) 




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