GoldChico
New Member
If northern Arizona's illicit drug trends mirror California's, Forest Service personnel are going to have an increasingly difficult time busting the majority of those who operate large pot farms in remote forests.
Drug growing operations here have become more sophisticated with the addition of cellular phones and a seemingly unlimited number of workers to guard and nurture them, Forest Service Special Agent Bill Mickle said.
Yet the ranks of the people designated to fight the war on drugs in the forests has not grown as quickly.
Mickle is the only Forest Service special agent in northern Arizona and one of three in the state. He was part of the investigation leading to Monday's raid of a large-scale pot farm located in Calf Pen Canyon of the Fossil Springs Wilderness on the Coconino National Forest. Officials believe it could be one of the largest pot farm operations in the country.
It feels like it's been weeks since he got a full night of sleep, he said.
He works 14 hour days sometimes in summer, the peak time for drug busts, but is also responsible for investigating everything from suspected arson to theft of ruins to homicides in the forest.
"There's no doubt we're understaffed and underfunded," he said. "But we definitely work hard."
He and six other Forest Service law enforcement officers police the entire 1.8 million acres of the Coconino National Forest. That's one man or woman to patrol every 2,846 square miles of forest.
As a rule of thumb, law enforcement officials figure that for every pot plant they find, there are nine more they have yet to discover or destroy.
They have little time to do patrols, acting more on calls for help or reports of crimes, Mickle said.
On a national scale, the Coconino is a large forest with about the same number of law enforcement officials for its size as elsewhere in the country: one officer for every 733,000 visitors.
But where other forests count an average of 9 percent of everything they do as cracking down on illegal drug operations, Coconino Forest probably commits at least twice as much time to drug enforcement, Mickle estimated.
Mickle's budget for training, equipment, travel and most else: $5,300.
"Our budget's small," he said. "We don't have a drug enforcement budget."
Last year 716,001 marijuana plants were eradicated in 155 national forests, according to Forest Service data, with the most in California forests. Fifty-eight methamphetamine labs were found in national forests in that time.
By comparison, Mickle remembers uprooting about 100 marijuana plants in the Coconino over the same year. Several groves were discovered after the crops had been harvested.
The number of plants destroyed in this forest could be much higher this year as a result of Monday's major pot bust north of Strawberry.
Here, like elsewhere in the country, law enforcement officers are seeing more commercial pot crops run by immigrants from other countries as opposed to what used to be small farms in the forest planted for individual use.
Meanwhile, pot farmers are developing varieties of fast-growing marijuana that can be harvested twice in a summer, instead of once, and another type that can survive in the snow.
But if pot growers start to stand their ground when approached by police, as they have in California, Mickle's job could become much more dangerous.
Last year, one deputy was shot at in the Coconino.
Various forests in California have had crops that were booby-trapped in ways last seen in the jungles during the Vietnam War, with sharp upright poles hidden below ground waiting for unsuspecting feet.
Some drug growers have fired at law enforcement officers when discovered and killed hikers.
Police have found police scanners and radios used to pick up police dialogue in California drug camps.
Like so many other things Californian, Mickle suspects it's only a matter of time until the same fervor for guarding hidden pot crops becomes an issue for law officers here.
Source: Arizona Daily Sun (AZ)
Copyright: 2005 Arizona Daily Sun
Contact: azdsopinion@azdailysun.com
Website: azdailysun.com | Serving Flagstaff and Northern Arizona
Drug growing operations here have become more sophisticated with the addition of cellular phones and a seemingly unlimited number of workers to guard and nurture them, Forest Service Special Agent Bill Mickle said.
Yet the ranks of the people designated to fight the war on drugs in the forests has not grown as quickly.
Mickle is the only Forest Service special agent in northern Arizona and one of three in the state. He was part of the investigation leading to Monday's raid of a large-scale pot farm located in Calf Pen Canyon of the Fossil Springs Wilderness on the Coconino National Forest. Officials believe it could be one of the largest pot farm operations in the country.
It feels like it's been weeks since he got a full night of sleep, he said.
He works 14 hour days sometimes in summer, the peak time for drug busts, but is also responsible for investigating everything from suspected arson to theft of ruins to homicides in the forest.
"There's no doubt we're understaffed and underfunded," he said. "But we definitely work hard."
He and six other Forest Service law enforcement officers police the entire 1.8 million acres of the Coconino National Forest. That's one man or woman to patrol every 2,846 square miles of forest.
As a rule of thumb, law enforcement officials figure that for every pot plant they find, there are nine more they have yet to discover or destroy.
They have little time to do patrols, acting more on calls for help or reports of crimes, Mickle said.
On a national scale, the Coconino is a large forest with about the same number of law enforcement officials for its size as elsewhere in the country: one officer for every 733,000 visitors.
But where other forests count an average of 9 percent of everything they do as cracking down on illegal drug operations, Coconino Forest probably commits at least twice as much time to drug enforcement, Mickle estimated.
Mickle's budget for training, equipment, travel and most else: $5,300.
"Our budget's small," he said. "We don't have a drug enforcement budget."
Last year 716,001 marijuana plants were eradicated in 155 national forests, according to Forest Service data, with the most in California forests. Fifty-eight methamphetamine labs were found in national forests in that time.
By comparison, Mickle remembers uprooting about 100 marijuana plants in the Coconino over the same year. Several groves were discovered after the crops had been harvested.
The number of plants destroyed in this forest could be much higher this year as a result of Monday's major pot bust north of Strawberry.
Here, like elsewhere in the country, law enforcement officers are seeing more commercial pot crops run by immigrants from other countries as opposed to what used to be small farms in the forest planted for individual use.
Meanwhile, pot farmers are developing varieties of fast-growing marijuana that can be harvested twice in a summer, instead of once, and another type that can survive in the snow.
But if pot growers start to stand their ground when approached by police, as they have in California, Mickle's job could become much more dangerous.
Last year, one deputy was shot at in the Coconino.
Various forests in California have had crops that were booby-trapped in ways last seen in the jungles during the Vietnam War, with sharp upright poles hidden below ground waiting for unsuspecting feet.
Some drug growers have fired at law enforcement officers when discovered and killed hikers.
Police have found police scanners and radios used to pick up police dialogue in California drug camps.
Like so many other things Californian, Mickle suspects it's only a matter of time until the same fervor for guarding hidden pot crops becomes an issue for law officers here.
Source: Arizona Daily Sun (AZ)
Copyright: 2005 Arizona Daily Sun
Contact: azdsopinion@azdailysun.com
Website: azdailysun.com | Serving Flagstaff and Northern Arizona
