Steven K. Paulson, Breitbart, August 28, 2009
A federal warning to beware of campers in national forests who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music because they could be armed marijuana growers is racial profiling, an advocate for Hispanic rights said Friday.
The warnings were issued Wednesday by the U.S. Forest Service, which is investigating how much marijuana is being illegally cultivated in Colorado’s national forests following the recent discovery of more than 14,000 plants in Pike National Forest.
“That’s discriminatory, and it puts Hispanic campers in danger,” said Polly Baca, co-chairwoman of the Colorado Latino Forum.
{snip}
Forest Service officials said they believe illegal immigrants are being brought to Colorado by Latin American drug cartels for mass cultivation of marijuana.
Michael Skinner, a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, said warning signs of possible drug trafficking include “tortilla packaging, beer cans, Spam, Tuna, Tecate beer cans,” and campers who play Spanish music. He said the warning includes people speaking Spanish.
The warning signs were included in a slide presentation put together for drug agents in Colorado and the public.
Skinner said this may or may not represent criminal activity, but are indicators and he urged any campers who encounter long-term campers meeting the profile to “hike out quickly” and call police.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on August 31, 2009)
Ben Conery, Washington Times, August 29, 2009
The Drug Enforcement Administration Friday announced that it found 14,500 marijuana plants growing in a Colorado national park, the latest in a series of such finds in national parks that authorities say are linked to Mexican drug cartels.
Authorities say they have seen an increase in outdoor marijuana operations run by Mexican drug cartels. In the past several months, federal agents have found nearly $55 million worth of pot plants in national parks and on federal lands in California, Colorado and Idaho.
On Thursday, authorities closed a section of Sequoia National Park in California so they could destroy marijuana plants discovered near a cave filled with crystals that is a popular tourist stop. Most of the marijuana already had been harvested. Authorities estimated the plants were worth more than $36 million.
In June, federal authorities seized 2,250 marijuana plants from California’s Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreational Area. That same month, hikers in Idaho found a site with 12,545 pot plants.
In the most recent Colorado case, the marijuana was found in “the remote, rugged terrain” of Pike National Forest, which is about 60 miles southwest of Denver. The DEA said it is the largest outdoor marijuana-growing operation ever found in Colorado, with an estimated value of $5 million.
“The persons who were involved in this criminal activity had no regard for the damage caused to the forest and environment by the waste they left behind,” said Jeffrey D. Sweetin, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Denver office. “The public’s safety is also at risk for those who recreate on our public lands due to these trafficking groups operating there.”
Authorities say they learned of the marijuana site from a passer-by. DEA said Mexican migrant workers had been recruited to work at the site and harvest plants, which were between 4 feet and 6 feet high.
{snip}
Mr. Sweetin said growing marijuana on public land in the United States has become attractive to drug cartels as increased border security has made it more difficult to smuggle large quantities of marijuana into the U.S.
{snip}
“The impacts are numerous,” said Gill Quintana, head of the U.S. Forest Service’s Denver branch.
He said these include “damage to the lands due to clearing the areas to prepare the garden site, trash left behind, chemicals used to grow the crop [seeping] into the watershed, and the public-safety issues associated with the recreating public coming in contact with these organizations while they’re operating on our national lands.”
Earlier this month, investigators in California said they were looking for marijuana growers tied to a Mexican drug cartel that they suspect of igniting the La Brea fire that charred more than 88,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest in the remote Santa Barbara County mountains northwest of Los Angeles.
The fire, which erupted Aug. 8, is thought to be the first major wildfire in the state caused by drug traffickers, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said.
{snip}
Original article
Comments
If we had the good sense to EXECUTE drug dealers, like some countries do, the drug problem would drop dramatically. But our liberal fools will, predictably, be aghast at this suggestion. Liberals being liberals are also often users of “recreational” drugs.
You would think that people setting fires in national forests and parks to create a distraction away from their own drug running would interest the Sierra Club. Except the SC has been bought off to ignore the taboo issue of race.
Legalize pot and put these amigos out of business. Lorillard, Reynolds and other tobacco companies will take over the pot business, in connection with Wall St and Madison Ave. You’ll have Jews and WASPS running the pot business.
My personal outdoor experiences include many years as a wilderness hiker. I also did a lot of hunting and drive-up camping in my life, even recently. I have always noticed that few non-whites take part in these activities. It is an intelligent first step to profile any camp with evidence that Hispanics are present. They are known to be in the National Forests and on public and private lands only for the purpose of illegal drug production. They often behave agressively toward any stranger.
Hmm..if it is Latin American drug cartels that are doing the marijuana growing with imported, non-English speaking illegal alien help how is that racial profiling? It isn’t BECAUSE their is no such thing as racial profiling, there is only criminal profiling. What should they say? “Look out for suspicious activity”. Well, fine, but what kind of suspicious activity? Like many white folks I would be pretty clueless as what to look for or notice because I have never been involved in those activities. Common sense people.
“Skinner said this may or may not represent criminal activity, but are indicators and he urged any campers who encounter long-term campers meeting the profile to “hike out quickly” and call police.”
I was told the same thing by a Washington State Trooper that I know personally. But this was in regard to trails accessable by jeep or even two wheeled vehicles. These guys are everywhere.
If the Forest Service has evidence that people fitting the description they gave are cultivating the marijuana, then, hey, that’s what they should be warning people about. I’m glad they’ve made no response to this “Latino Forum“‘s complaining. Don’t explain, don’t apologize — that’s the motto I’d like to see us White Americans adopt. As to so-called “racial profiling,” well, if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck …
Just one more reason drugs should be decriminalized.
If people could grow pot on their own property or buy it in coffee shops like in Holland, practically no one would travel to a ghetto or barrio to buy it from one of these losers.
I live in Canada, and I’ve collected a pretty impressive amount of data on Vietnamese grow operations.
The Vietnamese are notorious for growing marijuana in houses and on farms they’ve purchased. The operations aren’t small - they want big returns.
The product is not for their use, they deal it wholesale by the pound to other gangs who do the street-level selling.
Increasingly I’m being forced to the conclusion that every statement that is “racist” is true, and every policy that is “racist” is wise.
It is coming to the point in this country that if a crime is mainly caused by those of color, it cannot be publicized to warn people of who and what to look for. How insane this is becoming. Profiling is the main weapon of law enforcement and it should be! Also public awareness is called for and the perps described including their RACE!
What kind of incredible GALL would it take to grow illegal drugs out in the OPEN…on PUBLIC lands???
These people have no fear…that’s why they’re so dangerous.
And they have no fear because they know the authorities are too politically correct to go after them.
“eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music “
I do all three I’m non-Hispanic White, and I just smoked a joint.
I’m not kidding.
Maybe it’s not racial profiling because - drum roll please - there is no race mentioned.
Is this what John Denver was singing about when he sang about ‘Rocky Mountain High’?
Next time the Sierra Club sends me a letter asking for money, I will ask what they are doing to stop illigals from growing pot in the national forests.
BTW, I believe this pot is going to be used by mexican nationals. Note that when you increase the number of mexicans, the demand for pot increases.
“eat tortillas, drink tecate and play Spanish music, I do all three and I`m White…”
Any time a Mexican or a Black is suspected of or charged with a crime, it’s RACISM! Never mind that they have earned a bad reputation a thousand times over.
#13….why do you drink Tecate beer and play spanish music if you are White? Sounds fake to me. Looks like “smoking that joint” isn’t in your best interest or ours as a race.
Why haven’t these illegals been caught up in all these fires we are having..seems they were good at starting them in the first place a year or so ago….
The recent brutal murder of two White teens in the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia should raise concern. So far the perps have not been caught.
Is there such a thing as an Hispanic camper?
Someone mentioned Vietnamese above. There have been several cases of Vietnamese or Hmong buying houses in the Twin Cities that they use to grow pot. Usually it is a large house in the suburbs. They buy the house, tap into the electric lines before they hit the utility meter and the houses sit there with nothing but pot plants and grow lights for months on end.
An interesting observation as that blacks are never involved in the growing process. I guess the minimum technical skills required to produce a marijuana plant are still above their heads.
And yes, I would agree that the lion’s share of liberals smoke pot. The only solution to this problem is to legalize it. The trade-off between legal marijuana and getting rid of a large nonwhite criminal element is worth it.
3 — feller wrote at 6:21 PM on August 31:
“Legalize pot and put these amigos out of business. Lorillard, Reynolds and other tobacco companies will take over the pot business, in connection with Wall St and Madison Ave. You’ll have Jews and WASPS running the pot business.”
I used to think that this was true, but I have not for some years now. That is because I witnessed the very lucritive cigarette black market in the Balkans. Many there have made good livings for years by skirting tax laws. Every border as west as France asks questions of late night travelers and sometimes inspects vehicles and anything going into Slovenia or further south is routinely inspected at the Austrian border, the Italian border, etc. And through the internet, cigrarette smugling has come to the U.S. It is now a big business. Lately we have learned that the quality of the cigarettes is often poor and even contains dangerous substances. Because of all this, legalizing marijauna for the purpose of halting its illegal cultivation and sale is in today’s situation, useless.
In fact, it would create more government as regulating it and such would require new bureaus be set up. The police work would likely simply expand.
Why does anyone care about whether or not anyone is doing pot. It’s like playing cards on the deck of a sinking ship. Focus on the real problems. On bringing prosperity back to our nation by addressing the root problems of our ecoonomic problems, overtaxation, massive immigration, affirmative action and the progressive implementation of anti white government policies. I don’t see any point on focusing on issues like gay marriage, drug policies or abortion. I see evangelical Christian right wing folks getting all stirred up about these and ignoring all the rest. No wonder were losing.
23 — Anonymous wrote at 3:47 PM on September 1:
“Why does anyone care about whether or not anyone is doing pot.
> You are absolutely right. I couldn’t agree more. The right has so many useless buttons that the left can push and make them look foolish. It happens everyday.
I heard a review of a book called The End of Conservatism on NPR yesterday, at least a part of it. As the GOP and other conservatives skidder about, trying to find an issue to grow themselves with, their scope and relavance diminishes in the larger scene. American conservatives don’t realize how outnumbered they are in the world. Even British conservatives are a different animal.
It is time for whites who care about the future of their race and various ethnic cultures to awaken to their real selves.
Still waiting for that much touted white IQ quotient to kick in….
But is why I DO care about someone doing pot. At least if they are white I care. That is because pot smoking drops ones IQ quickly and chronic use can lower it permanently through the mind under the influece lacks some of the normal logical checks and that thinking often becomes habitual short-ciruited reasoning. That’s why it creates liberals, Jesus freaks, and Hari Krishna types (old stereotypes, but still true).
3 — feller wrote at 6:21 PM on August 31:
“Legalize pot and put these amigos out of business. Lorillard, Reynolds and other tobacco companies will take over the pot business, in connection with Wall St and Madison Ave. You’ll have Jews and WASPS running the pot business.”
I used to think that this was true, but I have not for some years now. That is because I witnessed the very lucritive cigarette black market in the Balkans. Many there have made good livings for years by skirting tax laws. Every border as west as France asks questions of late night travelers and sometimes inspects vehicles and anything going into Slovenia or further south is routinely inspected at the Austrian border, the Italian border, etc. And through the internet, cigrarette smugling has come to the U.S. It is now a big business. Lately we have learned that the quality of the cigarettes is often poor and even contains dangerous substances. Because of all this, legalizing marijauna for the purpose of halting its illegal cultivation and sale is in today’s situation, useless.
In fact, it would create more government as regulating it and such would require new bureaus be set up. The police work would likely simply expand.
Well you would need the price in whatever sort of locations to be competitive with the black market prices. With cigarettes at least in the US the price has become so incredibly high. Please educate me if I am wrong but isnt this because they are taxed so heavily. Well taxing something is one thing and taxing something ten times over till the prices goes up to a ridiculous level is another thing. If you think you could legalize marijuana then sell and tax it ten times over and a half so that the stores selling it wherever it was legal cant afford to sell it for what its going for on the streets then of course youll have a black market. Legalize it and then tax it don’t super tax it like cigarettes. Put the regular sales tax on it and no more. Then the stores that sell it can out compete the drug pushers and put them out of business. I’m not a big fan of taxation in general.
feller wrote at 6:21 PM on August 31:
“…Legalize pot and put these amigos out of business….”
I agree.
Making something illegal does not abate people’s desire for it just as Prohibition did little to reduce the demand for alcohol.
The Drug War has been no more successful than alcohol Prohibition was. Does anyone believe we are winning the War on Drugs? Does anyone believe children have less access to drugs than they did before the War on Drugs?
The late, great Libertarian leader Harry Browne wrote:
“…. the prohibited activity spawns a black market run by criminals. Drugs are sold only by people willing to risk being caught and sent to prison. The business becomes the province of gangsters.
Despite over $25 billion a year spent to chase drug smugglers, dealers, and users..despite all the ‘just say no’ propaganda, despite all the news stories proclaiming drug seizures and other supposed victories, the Drug War continues to be a massive failure and the more the government cracks down on drug operations, the more drug activity is dominated by the most brutal elements of society…”
http://tinyurl.com/ktamse
Black market operations generate billions of dollars for the drug cartels—money used to buy politicians and corrupt police. There is a reason mexico is now an ultra-violent narco-state—and the mexican government has recently has taken steps to decriminalize drugs.
There are reports that the mexican drug cartels, with their massive funds, are here in California carrying on the business of buying politicians, corrupting police city by city. They have certainly taken up residence in America’s National Parks.
Now, it seems, American citizens cannot enjoy their own National Parks that THEIR tax dollars pay for without being told they might encounter foreign nationals growing pot on American land and to: “… ‘hike out quickly’ and call police….”
End this insane war on drugs. End it now.
Bon
High taxes, such as those on cigarettes are booze create black markets.
Does anyone believe we are winning this insane war on drugs?
Ending the Drug War will allow law-enforcement resources to be redirected toward protecting you from violence against your person or property — the reason you tolerate government in the first place.
It will end the overcrowding of courts and prisons — freeing the criminal justice system to deal with the people who are hurting and terrorizing others.
Ending the Drug War will end most police corruption by taking the big profits out of the drug business.
Bon: I mostly agree with you. Today’s drug policy seems to be geared at producing the highest possible revenue stream for the illicit drug industry. If cops don’t crack down enough on dope dealing, then the revenue is too low for drug peddlers. If they crack down too much, the risk is too high and the money stream is too low. The trick is to find the “sweet spot” between too little and too much police enforcement suck that the risk is high enough but not too high to maximize drug profits. Police departments get their due cut, it’s called asset forfeiture. Because of that money stream, cops can’t and won’t truly crack down on drugs, the money neutralizes them.
If there is to be asset forfeiture, then the money and assets should go in some direction and to some institution that wouldn’t miss it if it stopped.
However, I disagree with your contention that prisons are full of people who have been caught with a little bit of weed. Almost everybody in prison for a drug offense alone are big time dealers. Either that, or they committed other crimes and they pled down to the singular dealing offense to shorten their sentence.
I would be willing to accept a compromise between legalizers and anti-legalizers to decriminalize possession, but keep dealing illegal.
Weed will never be legalized because the white lawyers, white judges and white prison owners make too much money off the proceedings. It also gives the feds unlimited power over the unfortunates caught up in a bust.
“…However, I disagree with your contention that prisons are full of people who have been caught with a little bit of weed…”
QD:
That is not my contention and that’s why I did not include it in my post—it was, however, Harry’s contention and I believe at the time he wrote the original article (in the 1990s) people were still going to prison after having been caught with small amounts of pot.
The government, to its credit, has since decriminalized lesser amounts of pot and does go after the larger dealers—but even that ties up huge amounts of law enforcement resources and personnel that could better be spent destroying violent criminal gangs such as MS-13—violent gangs that seem to operate around here with impunity. Better to bust up a few legal medicinal marijuana dispensaries.
“…DEA agents ignoring the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 stormed up to 11 medicinal marijuana clinics today. The DEA, which does not recognize the act, has been increasing its enforcement in recent months…”
Also in California: “…27,300 California prison inmates may receive an early release date, if Democratic legislators get their way. This prison release program is a cost cutting move that is opposed by Republicans, who do not have enough votes to stop it…Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already expressed his support for the prison release program, and will likely sign it…”
The government tells us that only ‘non-violent offenders’ will be released but 17-year old Lily Burk was recently killed by such an early release ‘non-violent’ offender:
“….Charlie Samuel is the poster child for the kind of thugs classified as ‘non-violent offenders’ despite a history of violent behavior…”
This is why Harry often said that if he were elected president of the US:
“…On my first day in office, I will pardon everyone who has been convicted of a non-violent federal drug offense. I will empty the federal prisons of the marijuana smokers and others who are no threat to society, and make room for the truly violent criminals and other thugs who escape prison through early releases and plea bargains to return to the streets and terrorize our citizens…”
You write:
”..Police departments get their due cut, it’s called asset forfeiture…”
Yes, but that does not trump individual cops (and politicians) offered monstrous amounts of cash by the drug cartels to either look the other way or aid and abet the drug cartels. There are rumors around here that the LAPD has already been infiltrated by the mexican drug cartels which makes sense as the White Chief of Police, Bratton, brags that the LAPD is now 42% latino. The border patrol is 52% latino and a number of them have been busted for aiding drug and/or human smugglers.
Los Angeles is a mexican city after all and the drug cartels are just carrying on as they have in central america and mexico for decades, increasing their power and influence in new territory.
With a porous border between mexico and the US, and no hope of the government sealing the border, no amount of enforcement will ever stop the flow of drugs (or lessen the desire for drugs)—sort of like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. It didn’t work during Prohibition and it’s not working now—but then, maybe that’s the point.
Harry was right—legalize drugs the sooner the better. We’d all be a lot safer.
Bon
Here’s a little news story from anti White, pro hispanic, pro criminal CNN. I’m surprised they published it.
CNN.com »
Forest Service: Pot plants found have increased by millions every year since 2005
Growers are in at least 15 states, are well armed, damage environment, officials say
u Ashley Fantz
“We destroy their plants and they come back, sometimes to the same spot, and replant,” said U.S. Forest Service Special Agent Russ Arthur.
“It’s definitely possible that hikers and campers are going to find themselves in the middle of a field facing some very dangerous, armed bad guys, because this problem is everywhere, and it’s only getting worse.”
Across the nation, pot sites linked to cartels have been found in 15 states as far north as Washington, Arthur said.
Last week, a portion of Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada was closed to visitors while rangers dropped from helicopters into a marijuana farm a half-mile away from Crystal Cave, popular among tourists.
Officials said there were five sites in the Yucca Creek Canyon where investigators recovered tons of trash, netting, chemicals and camping materials, a discovery that suggested the growers had been there, or planned to stay, for a long time.
Though authorities destroyed the patch, whoever wanted to profit probably got what they wanted. Seventy-five percent of the plants had been harvested, said park spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman.
“Last week for six days, instead of having families and children walking down to Crystal Cave, we were flying helicopters to do a law enforcement operation,” she said. “That’s not fair. You should be able to come to the park and enjoy it.”
What I disagree with about the posters who ask, why anyone should be bothered about someone else taking pot is not the fact they are using pot. I just can’t get over the fact, that so many Americans are so blaise, over foreing illegal alien nationals trashing the precious land that was saved by President Theodore Roosevelt for your pleasure and use.
The best solution would be to simply legalize pot. Note how ending prohibition ended the mob’s influence in alcohol. It is prohibition that is the problem. Try legalization for five or ten years. If it doesn’t work out, you can always make it illegal again. What is the rational for prohibition anyways? Smoking pot is a victimless crime. Where does it say in the constitution what one can or cannot ingest into their own bodies?
Asset forfeiture is is a “cash cow” and is used by municipalities to DECREASE the police and court budgets by a like amount. It is LEGALIZED ROBBERY by the state. Police in the State of Louisiana were stopping travelers and TAKING THIER CASH without any pretext of drugs.
There are many persuasive arguments on why America should legalize marijuana, and the reasons are sound, but the fact that many millions of Americans have used pot has not translated into real political pressure on the people who can change the laws. One of the problems inhibiting legalization is that people that smoke a glass pipe are not considered serious or mature. It is This stigma that scares many pot users to hide that they smoke pot. Therefore the Reality of who smokes pot and how much the smoke is very different than it seems. The last three presidents were admitted pot users and by my Understanding the same is probably true of the first three presidents as well. Marijuana Legislation is very serious and has everything with how we define what it means to be American. What credence do we as Americans give the rights of the individual to the pursuit of happiness as well as a right to privacy? In the end it is up to us to be public about our choices and to Voice our opinions to the ones that ultimately decide what the rules are. Every hand written Letter that makes it to a representative is considered to be the voice of a thousand people who did not take the time to write. Send an email, send a letter make a phone call and get counted.IMPIart.com
