We applaud the proactive approach local law enforcement is
taking to eradicate marijuana growing operations in San Benito
County.
Illegal growing operations, often run by Mexican drug cartels, wreak havoc on our parks and public lands, and support criminal operations.
We don’t want them in our county and both the Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team and the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office understand that it will take a forward-looking approach to keep these problematic pot gardens out of our county.
Law enforcement officials will be taking a big step this week by talking with private landowners in rural San Benito County about how to spot and report marijuana gardens growing on their property. Although marijuana growers often use public land, authorities have seen more and more growing operations taking place on private land.
The benefit of meeting early with landowners is twofold. It helps law enforcement identify growing locations and it also provides landowners with the educational resources to stop criminals from ruining private property.
Growers often leave behind all manner of garbage and hazardous waste at grow sites. When these are on public lands, it means tax dollars will have to be spent cleaning up the mess. In addition to leaving behind chemicals and waste, growers further damage land by re-routing streams and waterways for irrigation purposes. Furthermore, gardens are often protected by armed guards, which creates a dangerous situation for the casual hiker or landowner who happens to stumble upon them.
In 2006, UNET confiscated 56,363 marijuana plants, and made 14 arrests in San Benito County, the most since 1999, when agents seized more than 90,000 plants.
In the future, we expect the hard work of law enforcement to decrease the number of pot growing operations in San Benito County. We also hope to see the number of arrests increase.
These criminal marijuana growers should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and be forced to pay for the cleanup of the public and private lands their operations damage. After all, we’re not talking here about cancer patients growing enough marijuana to ease their pain. We are talking about large-scale drug cartels abusing some of our most important resources, parks and land.
But law enforcement can’t do it alone. In order to keep drug cartels and other illegal growers out of San Benito County it will take a community effort. Land owners and park officials must be ever vigilant.
Drug cartels shouldn’t see San Benito County as a safe haven for their criminal exploits, and the sheriff’s office and UNET are working hard to make this happen. We encourage them to continue fighting the good fight to keep these cartels out of our county.
