Feds Find Vast Fields Of Marijuana

Over 38,000 Plants Destroyed At Illinois Nature Preserve; 2 Suspects In Custody

(CBS/AP)  Authorities say an elaborate pot-growing operation has been discovered flourishing on forest preserve land northwest of Chicago.

Local police and federal agents Tuesday chopped down and burned thousands of marijuana plants found growing at the Crabtree Nature Center Forest Preserve near suburban Barrington.

Authorities say over 38,000 marijuana plants were removed from 14 different fields within the nature preserve.

The plants have an estimated street value of $5 to $10 million, according to Gary Olenkiewicz, special agent in charge for the federal Drug Enforcement Agency Chicago Field Division.

Richard Waszak, Cook County Forest Preserve police chief, called the illegal farm "the most sophisticated operation that we've seen."

Waszak said contraband crop was discovered when an intern doing research in the 1,600-acre park found men tending to an irrigation system and contacted forest preserve police.

Investigators say that in addition to the marijuana fields, they also found camps with tents, cots and supplies, including food, a cooking area, shower area, and fertilizer bags. They say one of the encampments has a reinforced underground bunker, lined with four-inch logs and covered with dirt.

During an inspection of one of the cultivated fields, investigators found two men wearing camouflage clothing and sleeping in a tent located in a heavily brush-covered area in the center of yet another cultivated field of marijuana.

Authorities say Bernardo Rangel, a Mexican citizen who has a permanent resident card, and Jose Verra, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, face charges of cultivating marijuana, criminal damage to land and criminal trespass.

The two men have been charged in connection with the growing operation, but authorities say neither suspect is believed to be the mastermind.

For the Chicago area, this is the fourth marijuana eradication in the Cook County Forest Preserves to take place during 2007. The total marijuana plants eradicated and destroyed in this year’s previous operations totaled approximately 17,000 plants and, at over 38,000 plants, Tuesday’s raid clearly surpassed that number.

"This particular marijuana operation shows the sophistication of some traffickers," said Mr. Olenkiewicz. "Instead of smuggling marijuana across the border, this drug organization set up shop in the United States on public property, in the forest preserves, where it was being cultivated for harvest and illegal distribution."

[rushman71]

It is approprately illegal and should be avoided, like all mind-altering substances.
Posted by markbrookhar

Well then, alcohol should be 10 times more illegal than pot. Tell me, when was the last time you've heard of some deadly auto accident, either into a pedestrian or another car, caused by someone who was stoned? When was the last time you've ever heard of someone O.D.'d on pot(we're talking dead)?

[slim1h2o]

" They chopped and they burned, and they burned and they chopped till all our little wild wood weed was gone, sitting on them sack of seeds".

Jim Stafford; Wild Wood Weed

[rushman71]

"Local police and federal agents Tuesday chopped down and burned thousands of marijuana plants found growing at the Crabtree Nature Center Forest Preserve near suburban Barrington."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are the environmentalists when you need them!!! It was part of our nature!!! Herbs--Does the body good!!!

[slim1h2o]

Posted by mo005 at 09:04 AM : Jul 26, 2007

Well said, and to markbrookhar thats what the feds, and drug co's would want you to beleive.

Thats Bushshit to you.

[mo005]

This is ***. I think I'll pop some pharaceuticals, and go to a bar and get drunk , then go kill someone driving down the road. But hey its leagal. The most brutal thing you go do on pot is buy two quarter pounders. you people crack my *** up.

[markbrookhar]

I wonder if when the sheriff's department "burned" the plants, they stood nearby sniffing the smoke? It wouldn't be the first time.

Cannabis don't really make you think, it just makes you think that you are thinking. It numbs and distorts the natural thinking processes fooling the mind. It is approprately illegal and should be avoided, like all mind-altering substances.

[kaiyo4u]

In downstate Iliinois (anywhere south of Chicago) we call that county Crook County. It would not surprise me that any of the people involved in any of the government agencies there had a hand in that operation. But, you'll never hear of it. Chicago has to be the one of the most corrupt cities in the US. Of course their current governer is from that area... Go figure...

[keithle1]

Put all the druggies & junkies on one planet.

[actornaught]

aardbeavis, that anti-lectual racist POS has bizarro spoken again. feh... i need another shower just from skimming his (it's?) trash...

[kansas1946]

GunOwnerDan,
Here is another great site in addition to the ones you named.
DRCnet.org
It is a lobby group in Washington trying to restore sanity in the drug laws. I think that the drug lords have half the politicians in Washington on their payroll. The people that stand to lose the most from legalization is organized crime.

Every year since 1984, the US government has indicated that marijuana is the nations number one cash crop.

[cbsnews45]

Only a country of pompous elitists driven blindly by a religion of control would try to legislate what people do to themselves when hurting no one else. You can only legislate actions against others, anything else is a losing fight. The "War on Drugs" would be laughable if it hadn't caused so much heartache and pain. We need change.

[tiredofthebs]

Roll it up, light it up, smoke it up !!!
Inhale ...... Exhale ........

[cbsnews45]

Only a country of pompous elitists driven blindly by a religion of control would try to legislate what people do to themselves when hurting no one else. You can only legislate actions against others, anything else is a losing fight. The "War on Drugs" would be laughable if it hadn't caused so much heartache and pain. We need change.

[cbsnews45]

Only a country of pompous elitists driven blindly by a religion of control would try to legislate what people do to themselves when hurting no one else. You can only legislate actions against others, anything else is a losing fight. The "War on Drugs" would be laughable if it hadn't caused so much heartache and pain. We need change.

[hedonist3]

Where's SingingRick when you need a good debate!?!?!

[gunownerdan]

Marijuana has been illegal for over 70 years and today it is America's #1 cash crop.
BILLIONS of dollars are going right into the hands of drug dealers and drug gangs thanks to marijuana prohibition.
The same thing happened when alcohol was illegal and bootlegging gangsters like Al Capone made tons of money on the black market.
Prohibition will never work!

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
www.leap.cc

Marijuana Policy Project
www.mpp.org

[cbsnews45]

Only a country of pompous, elitist fundamentalists would try to legislate what people do to themselves when hurting no one else. You can only legislate actions against others, anything else is a losing fight. The "War on Drugs" would be laughable if it hadn't caused so much heartache and pain. We suck.

[cantshutup]

i let some lettuce go to seed in my garden...it is now an opiate...what about that gypsum weed out behind the shed??? smoke it and you'll be wackier than what you'd be on the maryjane...oh, and those beautiful poppies lining my fence? cannot WAIT to harvest the seeds and sap for opium! too many nosy christian neighbors to grow the mj again in my tomatoes but i took a bushel of pears and made the best dam* liquor i've ever drank...lordy, lordy, i do love an abundant harvest of sh*t to make me trippp!!!

[crystalblue3]

d@mmit! D@mmit D@mmit D@mmit!