Illegal pot invades California's deserts, bringing violence, fear, ecological destruction

[ripcord]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-11/illegal-marijuana-grows-have-overrun-the-california-desert?fbclid=IwAR19PSJerkpwx6olOijlc6Smh99eaNcRH9Gdd7nSgFm6Z61tpOml6agnNMk

Before his corpse was dumped in a shallow grave 50 miles north of Los Angeles, Mauricio Ismael Gonzalez-Ramirez was held prisoner at one of the hundreds of black-market pot farms that have exploded across California’s high desert in the last several years, authorities say.

He worked in what has become California’s newest illegal marijuana haven: the Mojave Desert. A world away from the lush forest groves of the “Emerald Triangle” of Northern California, this hot, dry, unforgiving climate has attracted more than a thousand marijuana plantations that fill the arid expanse between the Antelope Valley and the Colorado River.

It’s an unprecedented siege that has upended life in the remote desert communities and vast tract developments that overlook Joshua trees and scrub. Authorities say the boom has led to forced labor, violence, water theft and the destruction of fragile desert habitat and wildlife.

Longtime residents say they feel less safe, claiming black-market growers act with impunity by carrying weapons, trading gunfire with rivals and threatening those who wander too close to their farms.

“When our family moved to Twentynine Palms nine years ago, it was peaceful and calm,” said Amy Tessier, 38. “The invasion of pot farms changed all that. … We don’t go for walks under the stars anymore. It just doesn’t feel safe.”

Many of these illicit farms are run by criminal organizations, according to federal drug agents, and often rely on the labor of undocumented immigrants like Gonzalez-Ramirez.

Enlisted by growers from his hometown in Mexico, the 26-year-old tended marijuana plants for perhaps as long as a month and a half at a makeshift greenhouse on the outskirts of Lake Los Angeles, where he was held against his will, prosecutors say, by means of “violence, menace, fraud and deceit.”

In February, he was shot in the head with a semiautomatic pistol and buried in a desolate stretch of desert.

After a tip led authorities to unearth Gonzalez-Ramirez’s body a month later, they arrested three undocumented farm operators on suspicion of murder and false imprisonment. The suspects, according to court documents, were said to be “affiliated with the Jalisco cartel.”

[Bayard]

1. Seems like that would be the most unhospitable place to grow pot

Even stealing water.

There were growers operating in remote areas of Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks when I lived out there. They shot at least one park ranger who stumbled upon them.

[MagickMuffin]

2. Here's the reason to legalize, and arrest illegal grow farms

They need to be shut down, instead of allowing them to terrorize the community.

[Beaverhausen]

6. Pot is legal in California.

I'm told that because of the high taxes on the legal weed there is still a big market for the illegal stuff.

[padfun]

3. I've always known this area as Meth lab territory

And now pot growers? What's this desert coming to?

[brush]

4. Where does the water come from for growing pot in the desert?

[Nittersing]

5. They steal it

from the article:

"In the midst of a worsening drought, growers have stolen water from agricultural wells and aqueducts, or have broken open fire hydrants. So much was stolen from hydrants in late March that the plummeting water pressure compromised firefighting operations. As a result, the Los Angeles County Fire Department ordered the removal of 100 hydrants in the Antelope Valley."

[brush]

7. Guess these growers are going for quick profits for as long...

as such operations last as there doesn't seem to be any long-term viability where survival depends on stolen water. The absence of which is so noticeable that water pressure drops and affects fire fighting in a drough...not to mention homes and businesses.

[GregD]

8. Google "Siskiyou County Cannabis"

It's a mess up here. Siskiyou County is the home of Mount Shasta, a 14,000' volcano. Beautiful place but not without it's challenges.

An area called Shasta Vista, in the north part of the county, has been populated by a large Hmong community. They have engaged in a significant level of illegal grows. Water is being sold by farmers and delivered in tanker trucks. Wells run dry.

This video is very clearly biased, but I fear it's largely true:

As I say, it's a mess, and very controversial.

[BComplex]

9. I'm surprised someone hasn't sent the national guard, armed & ready, to go take out these

cartels.

[ripcord]

12. Illegal growing is only a misdemeanor in California

In the rest of the western states that have enough land for large grows it is a felony. If you were a cartel and wanted to import pot to a state where it is still illegal would you rather grow in Mexico and deal with the international border and federal smuggling laws, another state where you would be committing a felony or California where you will get a $500 fine?

[GoodRaisin]

10. It sounds like the feds are allowing this to happen. Prop. 64 has

nothing to do with that decision. As long as there are markets for the illegal weed and they ignore the problem in this area nothing will change. But this situation shouldn't be held up as an example of about how marijuana legalization isn't working.

[msongs]

11. drug users will do anything to get their drugs nt