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Investigators seize $1.3 million of marijuana from Montana de Oro panga

May 31, 2013

PangaMDOLaw enforcement investigators seized approximately $1.3 million of marijuana that arrived Wednesday morning at Montan de Oro State Park, where a panga boat beached.

The marijuana confiscated totaled 53 bales and 1,909 pounds.

On Wednesday, San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputies arrested fourteen suspects, the majority of whom are Mexican nationals, for transporting marijuana for sale and possessing marijuana for sale and conspiracy. One 17-year-old juvenile suspect is also in custody.

Investigators found the 35-foot panga boat on a secluded beach at Montan de Oro shortly after noticing the suspects getting into vehicles and loading packages around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. In the early morning hours prior to the arrests, the Sheriff’s Special Operations Unit help deputies surveil the suspects in the state park.

The Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the California Highway Patrol and state parks rangers are assisting the Sheriff’s Office in the case, but local prosecutors will prosecute the suspects.

 


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And that’s not even my ultimate point. My ultimate point is that, Californians have voted to make marijuana legal and yet we still have this attitude like we just made a bunch of money and/or saved a bunch of lives with this bust. Baloney! This drug was just going to make some people mellow, spread some money around the economy and probably save lives if you consider that the users were probably going to drink or fight or commit crimes until they self medicated etc. Now, it’s realistically likely to cost us Californian 1.3m to handle the problem created by this bust. Using the govt.’s street value estimate of 1.3m we taxpayers just took a swing of 2.6m. We had 1.3m about to enter our economy and now instead we’re going to pay out 1.3m and get nothing.


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Your understanding of economics is not real good. The $1.3M (even if that was correct) would not have benefited society to that extent — much of the cash paid for it would have gone back to Mexico. As for the cost of processing the bust — you are probably much closer to reality there. Still your point is basically correct in that the whole “War on Drugs” is a wasteful (and mostly unsuccessful) drain on society. Even for drugs like Meth whose harm is much greater, the “War” approach is pretty much a failure. It should be fought but there are more effective (if not cheaper) ways.


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Your understanding of economics is not real good. The $1.3M (even if that was correct) would not have benefited society to that extent

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Hah? Really? DId i submit my comments to the Ivy League Institute of economic perfection for review or something? Gimmee a break. It’s called trade and just about everything you have including the device you are on the web with came from another country and obviously “much” of it goes to that country even if it is an American owned company if nothing else to avoid paying American taxes. Read the latest articles on Apple about how it takes pride in holding billions in other countries just to avoid paying American taxes.


And to the original point I made, “much” of it also stays here as it filters through society being sold down the pyramid from one American to another.


And then there’s the indirect economic benefit. The unknown. How many violent domestic disputes are avoided when chemically unbalanced individuals can self medicate at home with mj? How my vehicle accidents and medical expense and deaths are avoided if people stay home and self medicate with mj rather than going to the liquor store etc. etc. You get my point.


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Can you please explain to me how voting to make something legal increases the illegal trade in it? Talk about twisting everything you see to fit what you already believe.


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Can you please explain to me how voting to make something legal increases the illegal trade in it?

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What? I don’t even understand what this is supposed to mean. Step back. The concept is real simple. Forget legal v. illegal for a second. Just think trade. When someone brings a product to market to sell it, it’s called trade right? Someone invests time and money making a product–this time a crop and brings it to market and sells it to wholesalers, who in turn sell it to more wholesalers and down the line until the ultimate consumer consumes it, right? Just like any product. All along money is being exchanged–trade. Same for pineapples from Hawaii as for wine from Australia or beer from germany or pot grown in mexico.


Now throw legal v. illegal back into it. If the pot was legal, as most californians had voted for, we’d have 1.3m of trade-able goods entering the economy right? Simple enough concept, right? But because it’s actually illegal due to politicans, we don’t get the benefit of 1.3m in trade and in addition we get the burden of prosecuting and deporting the criminals and burning the product at at cost of 1.3m.


That’s a 2.6m dollar swing. See now? Lesson over.


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This is getting out of hand, and I don’t mean the smuggling, because I have a hard time believing that this is occurring. This is the equivalent of someone bringing a truckload of Folgers Crystals to a Starbucks and hoping to make money. Someone needs to do a serious investigation into the law enforcement agencies finding these boats. I doubt anyone would have much luck penetrating the blue wall of silence though… as this is clearly a high level operation. It is the law enforcement equivalent of a military false-flag event.


Of course maybe I’m wrong. But it’s so ludicrous that it’s safest to assume this is not what it appears to be unless I see some really compelling evidence.


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtDAK7Umk7A


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Um this is probably a really stupid question but – if marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes, why can’t this pot be sold to licensed dispensaries so the city/county could recoup some of the costs of law enforcement?


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It is a great idea but a stupid question.


One answer is that too much of our justice system relies on pot being illegal to stay employed. Another is that the Washington lobbyists for alcohol, pharmaceuticals and (possibly) tobacco have vested interests in keeping pot illegal. The booze & legal drug lobbies don’t want the competition and all of them have probably figured out that profit margins would be too low to add to their line of products.


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Law enforcement investigators seized approximately $1.3 million of marijuana

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Here we go with the suped up numbers again. 1.3m total sales if you had 500 street dealers selling it illegally at the higest known historical prices. And all those avocados laying on the ground under my avocado tree are worth $3 a piece in Vermont in the fall too.


If it’s 1.3m, why don’t you take it down to the bank and cash it in and use the money to build Grover Beach some paved roads? Er, ah, oh–because it’s not really 1.3m is it now. It’s actually a huge liability because first you are going to store it, then you are going to prosecute and house the defendants, then you are going to deport them, then you are going to pull the bales out and burn them. The actual expense of all this is actually probably close to negative 1.3m.


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That’s $42.50 per ounce….


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Which is about 3 times the street value of commercially grown mexican cannabis sativa brick weed, IF there were any market for it at all.


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There might have been if those damn kids didn’t thwart disgraced Detective Cory Pierce!


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