Photos courtesy ICSO
(ICSO press release)
Marijuana Cultivation Site Raided West of Independence, CA
September 8, 2014
On Wednesday September 3rd, 2014, INET Agents with the assistance of the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department
(ICSO), Bishop Police Department (BPD), United States Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), National Parks Service (NPS), Campaign against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) raided an illegal marijuana cultivation site in the Inyo National Forest west of Independence, CA. Officers removed more than 4,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $2 million dollars. Officer’s also removed approximately 500 pounds of trash and approximately 40 pounds of fertilizer from the site. No suspects were located at the cultivation site during the raid.
The public is asked to please contact local law enforcement if you come across these signs:
- Hoses or drip lines located in unusual or unexpected places.
- A well-used trail where there shouldn’t be one.
- Voices coming from an unusual place.
- People standing along roads without vehicles present, or in areas where loitering appears unusual.
- Camps containing cooking and sleeping areas with food.
- Small propane bottles (so the grower can avoid detection of wood smoke).
- Fertilizer, weapons, garbage, dead animals.
- Individuals armed with rifles out of hunting season.
Lastly, it is common for the pesticides and herbicides used during illegal marijuana cultivation to be illegal and unsafe – please do not touch anything! Immediately contact local law enforcement, and be prepared to give as much detail as you remember. Stay safe and stay informed!
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I say everybody should grow some at home legally.
Wise up,
This grow isn’t about weed use, it’s about money.
No arrests = Surveillance at this site is complete, all perps are known.
Grows on public lands pose a significant health and safety risk to the public.
If you need pot get the card and grow it yourself like they do all over the state.
http://www.co.kern.ca.us/artman2/main/uploads/1/medical-marijuana-ordinances.pdf
If you don’t need pot then carry on as you were.
If you use, educate yourself and your friends…
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/are-you-smoking-pesticides-your-pot
“According to Raber, about 10 percent of the marijuana tested in his lab registers positive for pesticides on average. All of those samples come from medical marijuana dispensaries as well as patients who have sought out testing.The Times-Standard reported that in one random study in Raber’s lab, more than 35 percent of marijuana failed pesticide tests.”
Folks, I don’t know what planet you come from, but I have seen plenty of stupid and dangerous people under the influence of marijuana and combo marijuana/alcohol/and meth. I even had a friend killed by a driver under the influence of all three. So give it a rest. We all get it. You are anti police, pro drug…….congratulations it is a free society and you can voice your opinion about your experiences with recreational pot and the pro pot articles in High Times you have read, but I seriously doubt you have any personal experience in the real War on Drugs which is about life, death. power and money by the Cartels, who thrive on American addictions. And you ignore the criminal sub-culture of marijuana in Northern California, Mexico and here in the High Sierras where there are threats from armed growers, extensive environmental damage, and fraud committed on a wide scale on county social services programs by persons in illegal grow operations. So do us favor, clarify if you support recreational use, medical use, sales for profit and greed in your postings so we can better appreciate your point of view.
Buffoon: Illegals and cartels secure the boarder and put the squeeze on both. Or leave the boarders open and have both problems continue to get worse for years to come.
My point of view is that, as an adult citizen of a country founded on the notion of individual liberty, it’s none of your damn business what I put in my body.
Marijuana has been de facto legal in California and other states for more than a decade and the sky hasn’t fallen– I think you can find a more useful hobby horse.
Hans: I agree with you completely up to a point. I don’t care what you put in your body.
My concern comes when you put your body in a vehicle and then put that vehicle on the same road that I’m on. Then I don’t like it and it becomes my damn business.
Do whatever you want at home not on the road.
I am not anti-police or pro-drug, I am pro-logic and pro-earth, to further explain my view; in this particular case, what did the tax payer get out of it? with 9 agencies represented here, what did we get besides a hint of what we expect to see next year with this reactive approach.. I mean of all the things that the police could be serving and protecting, we have police arresting people for pot every 42 seconds http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/17/2627601/people-arrested-drug-abuse-violations-2012/ it’s become ridiculous!
I support decriminalization of Marijuana! Classify it as a vegetable or herb one would grow in a garden, protect the people accordingly, Driving under influence shouldn’t ever be tolerated, and discrepancies like this shouldn’t ever be tolerated either = http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/
Now that is just my reasoning behind the decriminalization of marijuana, without even mentioning the benefits of HEMP!
Anyone that knows first hand the effects of marijuana compared to other substances, it does not belong in the category with meth, crack, cocaine or even the LEGAL synthetic drugs over the counter and LEGAL alcoholic beverages we see glorified in Ad’s, it is THROUGHOUT HISTORY we have see it to be a lot safer to consume…
not much to say after that post….other than you sure did name yourself appropriately!
It seems to me that if people knew and cared as much about being educated as they do about drugs — maybe there wouldn’t be as much drug use.
Plain and simple…read the police beats. The story is the same over and over again. Drunk people doing stupid things. I can only imagine how sick LEO are of dealing with drunk people.
You never see ‘person high on marijuana’ calls in the police beat.
It’s very clear that marijuana is the lesser of two evils when compared to alcohol. So why are so many people against it and we have so many laws against it?
Propaganda spread by big alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals….Even a dummy can see it. it at least started with Reefer Madness, but maybe even before that.
Please wake up people. Realize that you drank the kool-ade and that you are under the influence of very powerful mind control.
I’m not saying marijuana is great and everyone should smoke it….many people live substance free lives and more power to them. But for the large percentage of humans that for some reason seek out mind altering substances, marijuana is one of the least harmful they can take. I for one, speculate that with the development of humans incredible brains, somehow came along a need to numb that big powerful brain sometimes. Some can do it through yoga, or meditation, or physical activity…..but that need is there for something.
Let’s get the mexican mafia out of our country by letting people grow their own and sell it to friends too. Let’s have true drug education in our schools instead of brainwashing DARE that doesn’t work, so kids have a better chance of avoiding putting harmful substances in their bodies. Enact positive change!
why would someone put thumbs down to a procedurel ? bennett maybe you could find an answer ?
It’s amazing how many of you drift “off the main topic”, regarding the story. The sad part is the destruction or desecration of our wonderful public lands, our National Forest, the very reason most of us live and work here. I wish more locals would take a proactive stance against these growers. Repairing the damage is going to cost money the Inyo NF it doesn’t necessarily have.
Marijuana is illegal, under federal law, that is a fact! One that I hope never changes.
It’s amazing how you don’t take other relevant points into account, why is marijuana illegal when it is prescribed by doctors in treatment to the ill? Why is it illegal when the studies show it is a lot safer then Alcohol? Why do we allow too see things in the bias fashion’s that are actually counter productive to ourselves and those around us?
If you would hear me out, I am saying that “I believe” my questioning of the current protocol is a proactive stance, one that leaves me in a vulnerable situation to ridicule and backlash, but I know my place in this world, I must re-connect to the ecology we are a extension of, you know the connection capitalism has broke..
You know? What about the destruction and desecration takes place when human’s feels it’s necessary to outlaw and combat a plant? I feel you and I are destructive and desecrating our planet, beyond US forest lands, when we contribute to capitalism and all this convenience we have become entitled to..
If only we could stand together, we would have that much more of a positive impact..Only when compassion is present, will we allow ourselves to see the truth.
I can guarantee you these grow sites are controlled by the Mexican drug cartels and the people tending to them are surely illegal aliens…..Do you really think that if you even caught the care takers of the crops they would do any serious time in jail,,,, heck they don’t even know who they are working for…. Staking out the pot farms takes man power and cost money and the agencies in the area don’t have that much man power to use…Destroy the site, cartels will lose money and the people responsible for tending to the crops will probably be terminated by the cartel that hired them…..
You can’t guarantee that Roy, it is a good assumption though.
There are however some U.S. citizens out there growing illegally too.
Every illegal grow site that I have heard of thru my law enforcement contacts has been conducted and financed by the Mexican drug cartels and that includes those in the Eastern Sierras…
So chances are Law Enforcement is okay with drug cartels (allegedly) getting away with doing this to our lands, as long as they eradicate the plants? It’s not the plants fault, it’s the people’s, isn’t that your argument on gun rights? Plants don’t hurt people, People hurt people!
See what I’m sayin….
Terminated with (EXTREME PREJUDICE), right, ROY ? About the manpower thing…I read a story 2 or 3 years back about a local DFW warden,formerly DFG, who staked out a spot in Yosemite National Park wearing a gilley suit for THREE days to catch a poacher. He must’ve wanted that guy pretty bad, but he got him. Isn’t cultivating pot on a scale like this a little more serious than poaching ?
DFW also does stake outs to make sure no one is over limit on their invasive trout catch.
Both the fish and the deer stakeouts make the pot raid with no arrest look really stupid.
Every agency involved is ignorant of the growing process. The criminals would be back very soon to pick up their crop. Instead they ruin all chances of catching anyone when they have their stupid (I wish I could say little) weed plant pulling party. It just further proves the war on drugs is really nothing more then business as usual.
I think the public who’s tax dollars support these agencies deserves to know why these illegal grows are not staked out and the cultivators arrested.
Mark….The top-of-the-ladder drug dudes that were financing and in charge of this operation couldn’t care less if the people watering and taking care of things gets busted or not…..either way,they lose their weed and $$$..so IF LE did sit back and wait on someone to show up,all that would do is open up the door for some to say what a waste of tax $$$ it was,and how these guys,the caretakers, don’t belong in jail….
The efforts of these agencies is reactive. If they were proactive they would go after the source. So if it’s going to be business as usual we can all expect to read a similar article or more in the Sierra Wave about this time next year.
Perhaps this is what they can do with the resources they have. BK
You might be right Benett, I know for a fact there’s job security in the way they’re going about it.
Now it would be interesting to know how much this raid cost the taxpayer because it will cost at least as much if not more next year.
See ya’all next year 🙂
Thats right! This is costing us, how do any of us support this counter productive approach of deterring our preventing this in the future, just a reflection of a society with backwards priorities..
With all the other drugs and problems out there, law enforcement spends way to much time and resources on MARIJUANA.. Not just my opinion, the credible studies and common logic back up that statement!
Next Year!!, and in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024…. waste of money get the point?
If its illegal aliens or “cartel” …. it sounds like a immigration problem to me.
If Marijuana was legal it would depreciate in value, we all know when any drug is illegal the value goes up.
Marijuana hard to smuggle across our boarders so the “Cartel” grows it in our forests. EVERY YEAR
is the valley asleep how do these people get there equipment to these out of the way places without detection ?
People look the other way. Lots of people out here buy their product. Too many. They have active supporters. Just read some of the comments here. Pathetic but true.
Your right DT! A lot of people buy and purchase Marijuana products, and if it wasn’t so stigmatized, people would come out of the wood work in admission to use and support of, and then a lot more would question what they hear about marijuana users and effects…
How come you never acknowledge propaganda? The reason the NFL was so hard on Marijuana use is because some of their biggest sponsors are alcohol companies, just how a lot of anti-marijuana campaigns are sponsored by prescription drug companies and booze companies, it’s all about the money!… and these “no tolerance” policies do nothing but alleviate human judgement, every case is different!
You mean the NFL that’s all about making money but has Non-profit status with the IRS? They all must be democrats.
I’m not sure what you mean? I was sayin how money and certain area’s where money comes from can manipulate or mold a person’s perspective if there is incentive or reward to think in ways that benefit the sponsor, so in the past the NFL had stiff punishment for marijuana use, NFL sponsors don’t like the potential competition or big public influences like the NFL to lighten up on it…
They must all be Democrats? You still put Dem or Repub’s down as if they are any different or any better? How about how the Republicans had recently killed a bill to overturn citizens united http://www.politicususa.com/2014/09/11/bernie-sanders-calls-republican-blocking-citizens-united-amendment-defeat-democracy.html remember the issue of money in politics, republicans love money in politics..
You mentioned it, the tax free issue, just think of all the money our nation doesn’t see because of current tax rates or no tax’s (legal loopholes), and what are we disagreeing about when we ALL know something isn’t right here…
Mark, why the swipe at Democrats? I thought Democrats were for more taxes and Republicans got off on that trickle down crap. I think they both bite!
why the swipe? Because the IRS stifled non-profit status for conservative groups.
I find it ridiculous that the NFL has non-profit status
I don’t think there are any real democrats or republicans or conservatives or liberals. Everybody is just out for themselves. They pick a posture or issue that they can make the most money from exploiting and then trick their constituencies into believing in it so they can get reelected.
We live in a corporatocracy. Big business runs everything and manipulates everybody.
Mark: “why the swipe? Because the IRS stifled non-profit status for conservative groups.”
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/15/meet_the_group_the_irs_actually_revoked_democrats/
Everyone agrees that the IRS shouldn’t have targeted groups with “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in their names for special scrutiny in awarding tax-exempt status. NBC News reports two agents have been disciplined for doing so, and the Justice Department announced a criminal probe. But so far no one has identified a single conservative group that was denied status in the controversial review, though some faced bureaucratic hurdles and had their tax-exempt status delayed.
In fact, the only known 501(c)(4) applicant to have its status denied happens to be a progressive group: the Maine chapter of Emerge America, which trains Democratic women to run for office. Although the group did no electoral work, and didn’t participate in independent expenditure campaign activity either, its partisan status apparently disqualified it from being categorized as working for the “common good.”
Ironically, the national organization and its earlier chapters had gotten tax-exempt status by the IRS during the Bush administration in 2006. But it appears as though the Maine group’s rejection triggered a review of the entire organization, and Emerge America and all of its chapters had their tax-exempt status revoked. Emerge reincorporated with 527 status, which requires it to report its donors. You can read the IRS letters explaining its decisions at the bottom of this post.
p ite, WE latins are sneaky like that.
when they bust these places do they take evidence as in fingerprints for future reference or to see if they already know these people ?
p ite….Probably because in a court of law and trial,a good defense lawyer could tear that evidence apart when it comes to convicting someone of something not seen and found in the desert…
Their are few in Inyo County that can really afford a good defense attorney! To top it off our last DA refused to talk to the public or press in any way.
Hmmm-because it was not in Mono county?
I take it you don’t understand mutual aid between neighboring counties??? Most counties assist each other in operations of this size. Unless they have an issue with them that is.
To be fair – the MLPD did not take part either. BK
MLPD functions on a skeleton staff, MCSO has a full staff. I don’t think the comparison is equal.
Right on the mark LOL.
Impress me with an arrest..
Inter agency back patting is more like it. Sounds like something SL or significant other would say
Hmmmm no Mono County Sheriff’s Department. I wonder why???? I guess they don’t need that kind of mutual aid. LOL
Nine agencies and no arrest?
That was fun boys, cya all next year.
The site should have been staked out, arrest made, then they could have their nine agency camp out, clean up party. But if they did it that way they might not be able to have their camp out party next year.
Meanwhile Yosemite burns……
I read the other day,since Colorado legalized Marijuana,illegal grows are more abundant,as well as 60 % of the marijuana people are buying is bought from the “street-vendors” and not the over-priced,over-taxed legal stores.
Ya see what happens Wayne when our government tries outlaw something that any bone head can grow and half our country has really enjoyed for the last 50 years? It’s almost like our goverment hates to see people have any fun anymore. Maybe I should move to Jamaica man?
Just think of the Hemp-Crete, biodegradable plastics, paper products or better yet the medicinal potential that is in that beautiful plant… unfortunately we may never be able to, as a society be able to utilize the potential in the marijuana plant, because a lot of people don’t merge to new information, they are willing to take their ignorance to the grave…
they care about the pesticides and herbicides the people use, but when it is a major corporation, it’s business as usual…they care about the environmental cost, but when it is a major corporation, it is business as usual.
Why didn’t they wait for the individuals to come back? to the make a arrest? Isn’t stopping it from happening next year the objective? because with this approach (war on drugs and criminalization of Marijuana) we KNOW there is no end in sight!
STAY SAFE AND STAY INFORMED!
In a society that makes sense, law enforcement would be taking over these farms and profiting from them AND THEN closing and repairing the land this could also irritate the original growers so much they may expose themselves.
I’m not saying this is the what law enforcement should be doing but it sure would piss off the original growers. When a drug dealers car is seized the car is auctioned off and well, I guess I don’t know where that money goes but there is a lot more money in weed than in cars, I guess the money probably goes back into law enforcement to fight drugs?
To suggest that law enforcement would sell illegal drugs to make a profit goes off the deep end. BK
It’s a herd Benett.
I don’t get it. BK
Marijana is not a drug . You referred to it as one only because our goverment incorrectly classified it as one. It’s a plant that something other than man created.
There are many plants that are considered drugs. I don’t really have a problem with marijuana with the exception of people operating vehicles when they’ve used too much. But your plant argument really doesn’t hold much water. There are many potent prescription drugs that are derived from plants, not to mention heroin, cocaine and a number of other illegal drugs. Plants can be extremely potent, toxic and even deadly.
I wouldn’t be surprised, I mean we have knowledge of the CIA getting caught in their shortcomings, we know banking firms HSBC can get away with laundering money for cartels, we know law enforcement can execute unarmed citizens in the street, and we just turn a blind eye, accept it and/or blame the victim, we have become desensitized to the daily brutality and bullying from law enforcement, why wouldn’t they take measures to preserve their job….
You know another sad thing is a lot of the anti-marijuana academics are sponsored and created by the pharmacies that produce and sell painkillers… gee I wonder why, it’s all about self preservation and the MONEY!
Sick consumer society..(tisk tisk)
It’s hard to find positive in stories like this once you take the blinders/beer goggles off…
But??? this video gives a example of law enforcement selling the guns they get from the hand me down programs (from the military), and quite frankly loosing a lot of them…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLntIDEo3CQ
I understand BK but spending millions fighting a war on drugs that were not going to win doesn’t seem to make any sense at all. Perhaps its time to change our strategy.
I’m just thinking outside the box.