Government plans large-scale marijuana raids in six California counties
July 7, 2011
Marijuana growers in the Mendocino National Forest will be the targets of the largest series of law enforcement raids ever conducted in Northern California. [California Watch]
Later this summer, as illegal grow operations start winding up for the surge in blooms and gearing up for harvest, Operation Full Court Press will unleash hundreds of local, state and federal agents into six counties.
The raids will target illegal growers who set up huge plantations of the crop, with some grows numbering in the tens of thousands.
Law enforcement agents contend that many of the operations have links to large Mexican drug trafficking rings.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman says the operation will help investigators target the organized criminal groups behind the illegal pot trade.
“The operation this year is going to have an impact on drug-trafficking organizations, marijuana supply that affects the rest of the nation,” he said.
Bruce Anderson, publisher of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, has his doubts.
“You are not going to catch Mr. Big in the pot patch with $100,000 in cash,” he said. The expensive, large-scale force will, as has happened in the past, find few, if any, growers when they get there, he added. The growers, with access to modern technology and cell phones, will be well alerted and long gone.
For more information behind the explosion in illegal pot growing on public lands in California, listen to KQED’s The California Report, which has been airing the series, “The Republic of Cannabis.”
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