Pot Raids Come Early to California
June 29th, 2009 by Rick
The feds are ramping up their efforts to bust illegal grow sites within California by way of a state sanctioned marijuana eradication team, comprised of federal, state and local officers — known as the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP).
A state Department of Justice spokeswoman, Special Agent Michelle Gregory, said:
They’re planting earlier, we might as well get out there and start picking them. [...] Hopefully, we can get some more grow sites.
CAMP is looking to break their record from last year of 2.9 million plants (reportedly worth $11.6B) seized from across California. Meanwhile, at a federal level, 5.2 million plants had been confiscated within the state. According to local authorities, 44,000 outdoor marijuana plants have already been uprooted, a figure way up (three times) from last year — Lake County being the number one area for the grow sites, for the third year in a row.
The grow sites that are raided (especially the large public ones) are believed to be operated by Mexican nationals that think growing pot and then distributing it within the United States is safer than growing it in Mexico and trying to smuggle it across the border. Apparently greed is behind the sheer increase of crops.
Special of the Day: Kung Pao Dan Tang
June 26th, 2009 by Rick
Anyone that is a fan of the show Weeds, would appreciate a story coming out of Colorado about a drug ring network that was busted that eventually led to the arrest of Dan Tang, owner of the Heaven Dragon restaurant that catered to many politicians for many years.
Despite a possible leak at the time, the operation named Fortune Cookie, busted 25 houses that had more than 24,000 marijuana plants spread out between them. Around $3m in cash was also recovered, along with $1m worth of grow equipment.
Jeff Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Denver field division of the DEA, said:
It’s the largest, most organized indoor grow operation I have ever seen.
Tang himself has only been charged with money laundering in the case, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office plans on making him the last person to be put on trial for connection to the drug ring. Twenty people have already been charged with state and federal crimes ranging from growing pot to distributing it and even money laundering and fraud.
Dutch Police Unveil CannaChopper
May 4th, 2009 by Rick
The Dutch police have a new tool to locate grow-ops and pot fields. Like k-9, but able to fly and having a super sniffer, the CannaChopper, is an unmanned miniature helicopter that has built in instruments that detect marijuana odor and uses IR (infrared) and video surveillance.
When the CannaChopper flies over a house, if there is a grow-op present it will detect the immense heat signature attributed with grow lights, as well as detect the slightest aroma from the marijuana plant. After the detection of illegal activity, the police are then called in for backup at the location.
On it’s first aerial venture it located a marijuana farm and seven growers were arrested. Only 10% of the marijuana fields are grown legally, the rest of the pot is smuggled into the black market.
Ohio Man Gets Creative with Crop Defense
October 24th, 2008 by Perry
In another one of those “only in Ohio” stories (which seem to happen with alarming frequency), a Cleveland man was busted for having a large grow operation … aaaand for outsourcing plant security to a seven-foot alligator.
The seizure total was pretty solid: 1,200 plants, 400 harvested pounds of marijuana, an industrial harvester, $30,000 in cash, two high-powered rifles and seven vehicles, including new Harley-Davidson motorcycles and a Corvette.
Police put an estimated $1.6 million value on all the seized pot.
So, about that alligator, Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Captain Michael Jackson joked:
Twenty guys with guns were afraid to touch it. We were pretty cautious with it.
Who says there’s no creativity in the marijuana workplace?
MarijuanaBusiness.com
December 12th, 2006 by Alex
Is this a future Fortune 500 CEO?
Even though it’s guaranteed to make you a local celebrity, landing in the tFS Arrests section isn’t as fun as it sounds. Everyone knows growing pot can be one dangerous occupation. Still, with the risk comes the profit, and that will always attract people to try their hand at cultivating weed.
MarijuanaBusiness.com, if you believe everything written on their site, is a company dedicated to teaching people how to grow & sell marijuana. They’ll also instruct you how to avoid getting arrested, hide your money from the IRS and do plenty of other things that will really piss off the US government.
Let’s check out some choice items from the ‘Table of Contents’:
- Step-by-step plans to starting a marijuana business
- How to establish grower/dealer relationships
- Local and federal POLICE/FBI/DEA investigation tactics
- How and where to set-up a distribution network
- How to hide your new found profits and make them work for you
- Liberal schools that are dealer friendly
- Conversations that will help you initiate a sale
Basically, this is a guide on how not to become a law-abiding citizen. If all the 42+ topics covered in the Table of Contents are accurate, MarijuanaBusiness.com might actually be one of the best available sources for a home grown pot business.
One downside is how unbelievably shady that guy on the cover of the CD looks. Also, their website fits into all the usual stoner cliches with weed green coloring and a tiled, marijuana background image.
Overall, this site only leaves me with one unanswered question – does MarijuanaBusiness.com have a chapter on how to avoid the FBI/DEA tracking who purchases their CD’s online? Let’s hope so, because that’s data someone from Uncle Sam will be very interested in seeing.
Seized Pot Stolen Back by Growers
September 11th, 2006 by Alex
Of the 20,000 plants confiscated, only 1,200 of them were stolen back. Still, that’s a hefty amount of crop that weighs in around a $3 million street value. This can be expected when the police bust one of the most complex and extensive grow sites they’ve ever encountered. Camping materials, defense weapons, intricate irrigation tracts and more alerted the police to the sort of sophistication they rarely see. Only growers with those sort of balls would be able to steal back their crops from the police. Although, knowing the remote area and being able to sneak in undetected is always a bonus.
The complexity of this grow operation is suprising, especially considering the area it’s located in. The guess is that 3 years worth of summer crops have been grown at this site, but tree ring analysis will be performed to determine the exact timeline. This goes to show you, no matter how advanced your operation there’s always the chance for discovery. Still, props to whoever had the gonads to jump back into the fire and take back what’s theirs.
