Alarm Sounded On Drug Cartels
Sheriff calls conference on rise of pot cartels, violence
By Scott Wintermute
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department held a press conference Thursday at the county’s main jail covering the issues surrounding this year’s high number of marijuana seizures in the area, and in particular, the issues that have arisen as a result of the cartel growers and traffickers working in and around our communities and wilderness.
Sheriff Bob Brooks discussed the La Brea Fire near Santa Barbara, which investigators allege was started by a propane stove in a marijuana cultivation camp.
Brooks expressed concern for recent changes in the way that the cartels operate. According to law enforcement agencies around the state, workers are now commonly being forced to work under much harsher circumstances.
Violence has become more prominent among grow operations to the extent of fire fights involving Lassen County Sheriff’s Department officers and marijuana growers, and workers being kidnapped and forced to work at gunpoint. “It’s a very sophisticated criminal enterprise that preys on defenseless workers and endangers every Californian.” said Brooks.
Former Ojai Police Chief and now Chief Deputy Gary Pentis addressed the influence of violence in Mexico and tightened border security on growers, saying that it had pushed them to open more operations in the United States, and California in particular to avoid the socio-political climate of Mexico and running the product across the border to be sold stateside. Pentis presented a slide show of recent growing sites between the Ojai and Lockwood valleys, where multiple crops have been discovered and destroyed.
With record quantities of marijuana being seized and the aggressive tactics of cartels, law enforcement officials have changed their tactics to better combat the illegal cultivation of marijuana. Pentis fielded questions from the press, which can be seen in a multimedia presentation.
There are many persuasive arguments on why America should legalize marijuana, and the reasons are sound, but despite the fact that many millions of Americans have used pot has not translated into real political pressure on the people who can change the laws. One of the problems inhibiting legalization is that people that smoke a glass pipe are not considered serious or mature. It is This stigma that scares many pot users into hiding that they smoke pot. Therefore the Reality of who smokes pot and how much the smoke is very different than it seems. The last three presidents were admitted pot users and by my Understanding the same is probably true of the first three presidents as well. Marijuana Legislation is very serious and has everything with how we define what it means to be American. What credence do we as Americans give the rights of the individual to the pursuit of happiness as well as a right to privacy? In the end it is up to us to be public about our choices and to Voice our opinions to the ones that ultimately decide what the rules are. Every hand written Letter that makes it to a representative is considered to be the voice of a thousand people who did not take the time to write. Send an email, send a letter make a phone call and get counted.
IMPIart.com
Not a Stoner… is Obama’s Pot Plants Czar.
grow up, Alex…
Hey man what seems to be the problem man.
Am I the only one who noticed the disconnect between the language of the original post/article and the images of the suspects/perps in the display beside the sheriff officer speaking at the press conference?
The article only talks about “Drug Cartels”, but the pictures are almost all “Hispanics”.
This disconnect is a good example of how Political Correctness has infested the “news” — writers are self-censoring and not stating the obvious. This process is essentially creating and maintaining a giant lie.
Look at the pics, then look at the text. Do you still believe the “news” ???
They can put community organizers and their ugly wives in the White House. They can try to indoctrinate our kids. They can destroy our jobs. They can leave our borders wide open. But they can never, ever take away the Second Amendment and our constitutional right to defend ourselves and our families against their BS.
www.infowars.com
HAAAA! Mr. Hand does not agree, but I say legalize it dudes.
Its all about the Bejamins!
Legalization of weed would be a good thing. Just think about it. Your average drug dealer (weed only of coarse)can have a 2mounth cycle to grow and sell to clinics. you average about 1500 each sell and then allow the state to gain taxes on it. Then you allow the clinics to sell it which means that the state gets even more taxes off of it. So why is this not happening? The politics involved in getting this started would be so overwhelming (paper stacked to the ceiling) that no one will try to push it. Well now Im just rambling on..Mrniceguy will do that to yea XD Peace out all
The Sierra Club advocates the plant farms because they’re the ones SMOKING IT! maybe if the illegals were utilizing dirt bikes, the Sierra Club may comment.
Legalize and control marijuana, like alcohol. Pull the plug on these guys in one easy motion.
There was huge bust last month in the Sierra Nevada above Fresno where Mexican drug cartels were using illegals to plant farms in the national forests. Everyone busted was an illegal. They were diverting stream and lake water for the operations. The open borders advocates at The Sierra Club had no comment.
Just this week another big bust in Sequoia Park.
Not a Stoner… may have hit the bong one to many times back in the day if you don’t think some of our freedoms are in jeapordy, your right bushdoctor your fruit trees might be next, how else is this government going to get out of this financial mess, and also pay for government health care?
Mexican nationals in the country illegally, camping illegally in a public forest, illegally consuming Tecate beer (alcohol), littering, growing weed in quantity for sale, driving with no insurance… Hey, if we make all this legal then this problem would go away, too.
This phenomenon is happening in Colorado, too. Check it out here.
Hey bushdoctor…That’s the most warped logic I’ve heard since the ‘pull the plug on grandma” crap.
By the way, you forgot to mention “they’ll take away our guns too”…
Legalize the stuff…how moronic, wasteful of tax dollars and close minded can people be??? It grows easily, has medicinal qualities, and could generate tax dollars instead of wasting them.
Ojai Kush ref.Weed Country
Great idea … already in neck on neck competition with Santa Barbara County. Imagine all this friendly smiling tourists.
So right now it is just fruit trees, I eat my own peaches and apples, and as so I am not in competition with local agribusiness concerns. The current notion that cannabis should be legalized and taxed to prop-up the states coffers is way out of line. If this were to take place would the state also impose a tax on my peach tree? My apple tree? Or how about imposing a tax on my kitchen when I prepare meals for myself instead of patronizing local restuarants.
The best things of life are free. The Govt. is is prolonging this prohibition as long as it can to figure out how to make a buck on it, and thus continue to take away our freedom and ability to provide for ourselves.
Right now I just have fruit trees
Come on bushdoctor, your not fooling anybody, what kinda KUSH you got going on right now in your backyard? I think Sommer could use some about now.
Wouldn’t it be a hilarious joke on the cartels if it was just declared Marijuana was legal for adults? It sort of makes me wonder why they haven’t legalized it yet. Seems the logical way to make the growers a moot point. How can we afford not to at the rate they are destroying our forests with chemicals and fires left unattended.
This is rediculous. The best way to get these gangsters out of our forests is to allow us to cultivate this herb in our own backyards.
The State needs to come up with ideas of creating revenue & jobs, legalize it, we have “Wine Country” why not have “Weed Country” think about all the pot heads that would want to visit “Weed Country” maybe Ojai would be a good place to create “Weed Country”
If the “criminal” aspect would be taken out of the equation, there would be possibly a minor problem. The fact, marijuana being “illegal” makes it a business for gangs and gangsters … all the way up to white collar gangsters with political influence.
The human consumption of cannabis via smoking has been found to have occurred as long ago as the 3rd millenium B.C.[3] In modern times, the drug has been used for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. The United Nations (UN) estimated that in 2004 about 4% of the world’s adult population (162 million people) use cannabis annually, and about 0.6% (22.5 million) use it on a daily basis.[4] The possession, use, or sale of cannabis preparations containing psychoactive cannabinoids became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century. Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of cannabis prohibition, while others have reduced it.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)
I strongly believe that many, so called legal drugs are by far more dangerous … I personally don’t care too much, lucky that I don’t need legal drugs nor I’m excited about illegal drugs. I consider life challenging enough.
I quit using the stuff about 30 years ago, and people are going to use it anyway…so it seems evident that legalizing pot would make the crimes go away. Make it legal, save some lives.
This wouldnt be a problem if it was Legal.