Law-enforcement rangers from the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, with wardens from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, located and destroyed two large marijuana cultivation sites inside Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.[1]
In the first raid, in the Crystal Creek drainage, officers found two men sleeping in a barbed-wire-protected camp, removed 7,680 plants and flew out more than 3,000 pounds of garbage with a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter.[1] The second raid came the same week in the Whiskey Creek drainage, where 4,641 plants were growing; the helicopter flew out more than 4,200 pounds (about 1.9 tonnes) of marijuana along with more than 1,200 pounds of garbage, and rangers arrested three men as they were processing marijuana.[1] The seized marijuana was destroyed by the Park Service the same day it was confiscated.[1]
Both sites were associated with cartel organizations growing in remote back-country with the intent of harvesting, distributing and selling the crop across California and the rest of the country.[1] Officers checked both sites for the illegal pesticides and fertilizers commonly found at such grows, and Superintendent Jim Milestone warned the marijuana was potentially highly contaminated and that pollution from the sites harmed wildlife and stream water quality.[1] The park has run raids on trafficking organizations’ grows since 2001, destroying millions of dollars’ worth of marijuana each year, yet new sites keep appearing.[1]
