California officials are destroying hundreds of illegal marijuana farms worth billions of dollars to drug cartels every year.
With a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency grant and a strict state licensing requirement, police have been raiding farms up and down the state and seizing or destroying the drugs, then dismantling the greenhouses protecting them.
State and local government agencies have joined forces to eradicate the farms, which have dramatically multiplied in the past several years while siphoning off precious water from a drought-stricken state.
Investigators in Southern California have discovered the operators are cartels from Mexico, Armenia, and China. Similar cartels have sprung up in the state’s Central Valley farming community, primarily from China and Russia.
“They are a threat to the safety of the public every day they are in existence,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Howard Fuchs said. “We’ve arrested people [at farms] who are wanted for murder in other parts of the county, and we currently have murders here under investigation.”
“We have murder, robbery, and assault. They have killed people. We’ve had workers killed, innocent civilians shot at, and people chased in their cars. If anyone comes close to these farms, they are playing with fire.”
Last year, the county had 750 illegal groves. In 2022, the number is down to 350 because of work by the Marijuana Eradication Team, comprising the Sheriff’s Department, California National Guard, and state Department of Fish and Wildlife. [Read More @ The Washington Examiner]
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