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On the Lookout for Marijuana Grows
Wednesday,
April 21 2010
CEDAR CITY, Utah (AP) - Officials in southern Utah are reminding hikers, hunters and local
residents to be on the lookout for marijuana grows in the area.
Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower
says most grows have been directly connected to illegal immigrants and the Mexican drug cartel.
A new website gives information
on how to recognize a marijuana garden and a map that tells people who to contact if one is found.
Iron/Garfield Counties Narcotics Drug Task Force officer Melissa Fritz-Fuller reminds people not to stick around if
they discover a grow because growers could be armed. They should leave quickly and contact police as soon as possible.
For more information click here.
Passengers in traffic stops get split decisions Supreme Court » Drug evidence thrown out in one
case, stays in another.
by Pamela Manson The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 03/15/2010
07:49:50 PM MDT More
than a year apart in Utah County, two men were arrested in almost identical circumstances during traffic stops and both were
charged with drug offenses. But the outcomes ultimately diverged: On Friday, the Utah Supreme Court unanimously threw out the evidence in one case
but allowed it to remain in the other. In the first case, a Pleasant Grove police officer pulled over a vehicle on Sept. 30, 2004, for
a broken taillight. The officer learned that the driver's license had been suspended for a drug violation and arrested
her, according to court records. After other officers arrived, one of the four passengers said he had a knife and handed it over. When
the other passengers were asked if they had any weapons, they produced a dozen pocket and throwing knives, the court records
say. About 12
minutes later, a drug-sniffing dog allegedly indicated there were drugs on the outside of the car. The officers frisked the
passengers and say they found a marijuana pipe on one. He was arrested, and officers also discovered a bag of methamphetamine
in his possession during booking, court records say. In the second case, a Utah County Sheriff's Department deputy pulled over a vehicle on Jan.
2, 2006, for an improper lane change and failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. The driver was arrested on outstanding
warrants and for driving without a licence. After a drug-sniffing dog who was in the deputy's patrol car indicated it smelled narcotics on a passenger's belongings inside the car, officers found methamphetamine
and drug paraphernalia in a eyeglass case, court records say. The passenger was arrested. Both men claimed they were illegally detained after
the drivers were arrested and while the dog was sniffing the vehicle. In each case, a 4th District Court judge rejected the
argument and the men pleaded guilty but reserved the right to appeal. In the Utah County case, the Supreme Court said that although the defendant's
constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure were violated because he was detained after the driver's
arrest, the deputy was acting in good faith based on the law in effect at the time. The court allowed the drugs to be used
as evidence. The
justices also agreed that the police in the Pleasant Grove case were acting in good faith. However, they tossed the evidence
because the officers admitted they did not believe the man was armed and, therefore, had no reason to conduct a pat-down search.
pmanson@sltrib.com Search
ruling A 2009
U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits police from routinely searching vehicles after the arrest of an occupant. To justify searching
a vehicle without a warrant under Arizona v. Gant, officers must show that someone who was in the car poses a threat
to their safety or that there is a need to preserve evidence related to the suspected crime. In the 30 years prior to that decision, officers
could search the passenger compartment of a vehicle after an arrest. The vehicle searches that were the subject of recent
Utah Supreme Court decisions took place before the law changed last year.
SHAKE & BAKE There's
a new method for producing meth that's expected to sweep across the nation. This process is referred to as "Shake
and Bake" and requires just a two-liter soda bottle, some crushed up cold pills, and various household chemicals. This
mixture is then shaken in the soda bottle. This process can be completed in a public bathroom or even in the back seat of
a car. The fact that they are using fewer cold pills means that cooks using this method can stay off law enforcement's
radar. However, there is still a downside in terms of safety concerns. Any oxygen in the bottle can create a fireball,
which can result in significantly more severe burns because the cook is holding the bottle. Also, unscrewing the cap
of the soda bottle too quickly can produce an enormous blast. And, a failure to shake the bottle correctly can produce
an excessive build-up of pressure inside the bottle, making it susceptible to bursting open explosively. Another safety concern
for the general public is the discarded bottles that contain poisonous, brown and white sludge-like by-product that are littered
along the highways and rural roads.
Is violence from south leaking into Utah?
By Pat Reavy
Deseret News
Published: Sunday, March 29, 2009 9:57 p.m. MDT
Michael Root, a supervisory special agent for Drug Enforcement
Administration Metro Narcotics, worked on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas from 1996 until 2002. At first, there was hardly
any violence, he said.
"Everyone knew you were going to cooperate if you get caught," he said.
By the
time he left in 2002, however, there had been six murders-for-hire that year. It was the start of the violence that would
eventually explode into what it has become today.
That violence has crept into the United States, mainly in cities and
towns next to Mexican border. And although Root, who currently works out of the DEA's Salt Lake office, doesn't believe
Utah "will ever be a major distribution point" for drug trafficking, the residual effects of violence on the border
may already be showing up in the Beehive State.
Root says that in Utah's drug culture, there has also been a noticeable
increase in violence in recent months.
• In February 2007, two men were left to die inside
a burning vehicle in a remote area of Tooele County. One died, the other was found crawling through the desert with burns
over 54 percent of his body. Drugs were believed to be the motive behind the fire.
• In
October 2008, DEA and Salt Lake City SWAT rescued a man who had been kidnapped and tortured and who was found bound and gagged
in the trunk of a car and about to be killed by men linked to drug trafficking.
• That
same month, another man was beaten and kidnapped from his West Jordan apartment before being dumped in a shed in West Valley.
The man later died from his injuries. A drug debt was believed to be the motive for the kidnapping and beating.
Although
investigators don't have any information directly linking those incidents to the drug cartels in Mexico and the violence
associated with them, Root said it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the violence in Mexico would spread north along
with the drugs being smuggled.
"The philosophy of the organization down there is to intimidate and use violence.
It's not hard to fathom that philosophy is going to carry on," Root said. "It's only inevitable you're
going to have spinoffs."
The more the cartels take over, the more they will use intimidation, Root said.
"Those
tactics go right along with it. It changes the face of drug trafficking," he said.
Utah has never been a major drug
hub, Root said. But the Beehive State does have its share of drugs being shipped either directly to the state or passing through
on its freeways en route to another area.
I-70, I-80, I-15 and U.S. 191 out of Arizona all have reputations for being
major transportation routes for drug traffickers. The Utah Highway Patrol seizes an estimated 3,000 pounds of marijuana annually
from those four roads, up to 100 pounds of meth and 50 to 150 pounds of cocaine.
"The majority of that is destined
for another state, another part of the country," said UHP Sgt. Steve Salas, the agency's drug interdiction coordinator.
It's a safe bet, Root said, that the drugs Utah organizations are receiving from Mexico, like methamphetamine, have
some tie to the cartels. And those cartels will want to protect their turf, he said, meaning there is little room for independent
drug dealers.
"If you're doing something in their area of responsibility, they will be involved somehow,"
Root said.
"It's absolutely the same folks," Salas said of the drug traffickers pulled over in Utah and
their link to the cartels. Salas says the cause of battles among other cartels is territory.
Both Salas and Root said
the drugs coming into Utah from Mexico typically come from the Tijuana and Baja California areas and then through either San
Diego or Arizona before coming to Utah. The cartels battling near the El Paso, Texas, border typically have their drugs shipped
east toward Atlanta, Root said.
The UHP said although their troopers are trained to always prepare for the unexpected,
typically there is little violence in Utah when law enforcers stop suspected drug traffickers.
"Ninety-eight to
99 percent of them are unarmed. They are a hired courier," Salas said.
When there is drug-related violence in Utah
or the U.S., such as the more than 700 kidnappings reported in Arizona over the past year, the victims have drug ties and
are not chosen at random. But the more the violence increases, the greater the chance of it spreading outside drug circles.
"There's always a chance of an innocent bystander (being hurt)," Root said. "As far as border towns,
usually it's drug traffickers and drug trafficker (violence) trying to send a message."
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com
In 2007 four marijuana cultivation sites were
located in Washington County. A individual (illegal alien) was stopped by the United States Forest Service rangers and
was subsequently found to be the person who was supplying the gardens and collecting the dried product. This individual
was deported on State felony drug charges.
In 2008 an Iron/Garfield Task force officer received information
from a rancher that some Hispanics were involved in suspicious activity in the hills above his property. A suspect was
identified and was subsequently followed to a residence in Hamilton Fort, Utah. Evidence found in the 2007 grows showed
this suspect was involved in the cultivation process.
Through surveillance, Iron/Garfield Task Force officers
and the D.E.A. identified five probable garden (Marijuana Grows) locations. The Washington County Drug Task was brought
in, along with a number of Federal Agencies and the gardens were raided and taken down over August 27th and 28th.
Stuart McIver, Regional Administrator
Adult Probation & Parole, Region 5
Utah
Department of Corrections
620 South 5300 West, Suite 247
Hurricane, Utah 84737
(435) 634-2801
smciver@utah.gov
Marijuana seized near Cedar
BY DAVID DEMILLE • DDEMILLE@THESPECTRUM.COM • AUGUST
21, 2008
CEDAR CITY - Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies conducted
a massive raid on a marijuana field south of Cedar City on Wednesday, bringing in about 3,000 plants with an estimated street
value of more than $5 million.
The marijuana, discovered accidentally by hunters, was mixed in with native plant
species. The rocky terrain required helicopter support to deliver supplies and carry out the plants.
"They were
concealed really well," said Cliff Lark, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency. "The growers kept a partial
canopy over the plants so the plants got enough sunlight to grow, but they would be very difficult to see from the air."
Lark said investigators throughout Southern Utah believe much of the marijuana growing formerly conducted in California
is moving to the area.
Several similar seizures have been made in the last year, including a July operation that yielded
some $9 million worth of marijuana in the Pine Valley area. He said the growers south of Cedar probably started this year's
crop in April, but he saw evidence of a multi-year operation at the site.
Other large-scale marijuana busts this summer
include 37 pounds found at the St. George Airport in June and another large amount found on five Mexican nationals when they
were arrested, also in June.
Wednesday's raid drew plenty of attention from multiple government agencies. The Iron
County Sheriff's Office, Department of Public Safety, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Marshall's Joint
Criminal Apprehension Team and the DEA all converged on the site. The Utah National Guard even contributed night vision goggles.
Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower said the operation cost about $2,000 per hour for manpower, supplies and equipment, although
federal funds would pay for the bulk of the costs.
Gower said no suspects were caught in the raid, although deputies
did find camps in the immediate area. He said there is usually always someone watching the plants at all times, but they take
off at the first sign of trouble, and can be difficult to find around such uneven terrain.
Gower said he believed investigations
would tie the grow site to other sites found this year in Southern Utah, including the Pine Valley find.
"We feel
that as these investigations progress, we'll probably find that they're all related," he said.
Investigators
were hopeful that they could find some evidence leading to the people responsible, Gower said.
In addition to the illegal
plants, another danger is the location of the grow sites where hunters, hikers and others could walk into danger. He advised
people who come across camps in remote areas to walk away and contact the authorities.
"We're hoping we can
make it tough on these individuals that are coming into Southern Utah," he said.
7/30/08 ST. GEORGE SPECTRUM - More than 7,500 marijuana plants were removed Tuesday from a grove in the Pine Valley area.
According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, the estimated worth of the plants was more than $9 million.
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A statement from the sheriff's office said a group of hikers spotted the grove of cannabis a few days ago. The
raid began Tuesday morning after authorities had put the area under surveillance.
More than 30 people from the
Washington County Drug Task Force, the Bureau of Land Management, St. George Police Department, Drug Enforcement Agency, Washington
County Forest Service, Washington County Sheriff's Office and Utah Highway Patrol were in Pine Valley at 5 a.m. to rip
out the plants.
Washington County Chief Deputy Rob Tersigni said authorities were finished at about 1 p.m. The
highway patrol provided a helicopter to assist in removing the plants.
"There's a lot of remote areas
where people are going to try and grow," Tersigni said. "Hopefully if people come upon them they call and let us
know."
Tersigni said the marijuana cultivation had piping for a water system.
"I think that
people have become more innovative in manipulating water sources in cultivating grows," said Undersheriff Jake Adams.
Authorities haven't heard or seen of any more grows this summer.
"We need to send a message to
those people who have come into this area that this is not acceptable," he said. "It's unacceptable to people
who live in Washington County. We don't want our home to become a drug factory."
Tersigni said there are
no suspects, but the case is still under investigation. He added this marijuana field is one of the largest authorities have
taken out in the area.
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