54 acres three miles from my house

[Big Don]

Giant pot grow raided on the Valley floor in Fresno County
Thursday, July 28, 2011
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN)EXCERPT: -- Federal agents and Fresno County sheriff's deputies raided a giant marijuana farm near Sanger Thursday morning. The 54-acre farm is on California near Indianola, but it's mostly destroyed now.


The DEA and sheriff's deputies have been inside the field all day, cutting down as many as 50,000 marijuana plants after serving a rare federal search warrant.
From the sky, you can see how vast this pot farm is -- more than 50 acres, filled with marijuana in various stages of maturity. Fresno County sheriff's deputies say it's the biggest they've ever seen on the Valley floor, so they enlisted help from federal agents.

"There seems to be a growing trend of, for lack of a better term, agricultural marijuana grows," said DEA special agent John Donnelly.
Officers raided the grow site early in the morning and detained all of the 50 or so people who were on the property.
A search of county records revealed the site is owned by Goon Pattanumotana, who is a part-time economics professor at Willow International.

Investigators aren't sure of his connection to the growers, but Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims says the field has been a major problem for more than a year.

"This is actually a domestic drug trafficking cartel," she said. "The same piece of property was involved in some crimes last year, so it really is blatant."
Last year, in an Action News exclusive, we followed marijuana from the same field to Texas, and investigators say growers shipped the supposed medical marijuana all over the country.
END EXCERPT
Why were federal agents needed? Because California doesn't bother to prosecute marijuana crimes anymore.

 

[Sukerkin]

Crikey mate! How on earth does anyone get away with such a thing? It's a fairly distinctive plant after all.

 

[Big Don]

There had been dozens of calls from neighbors...
Well, it was tarped over. The way farmers here tarp over strawberries and other plants, plus, there were green houses so some of it was indoor...
That and the fact that state and local law enforcement don't give a sh_ _ about marijuana...

 

[elder999]

There had been dozens of calls from neighbors...
Well, it was tarped over. The way farmers here tarp over strawberries and other plants, plus, there were green houses so some of it was indoor...
That and the fact that state and local law enforcement don't give a sh_ _ about marijuana...

According to your article, it was the locals that called in the Feds. But maybe, just maybe, marijuana use, cultivation and sale shouldn't be a crime.

Hell, make it legal, tax the crap out of it, and our national debt crisis is solved......

 

[Big Don]

According to your article, it was the locals that called in the Feds. But maybe, just maybe, marijuana use, cultivation and sale shouldn't be a crime.

Hell, make it legal, tax the crap out of it, and our national debt crisis is solved......

Yeah, the Sheriff called the feds because her hands were tied.
That's great, let congress make it legal then. Unless and until that is done it will remain illegal. So called medical marijuana is such a scam in CA, do you want to consume weed? Pay $150, get a card, smoke to your heart's content. What a load of crap.

 

[Makalakumu]

I'm assuming that the presence of this pot farm pretty much went unnoticed by you and most other residents in your area until the Feds raided it. That sounds like a hell of a public nuisance...

 

[Archangel M]

Big boy/girl rules. Don't ***** to me when you get caught doing something you knew was illegal the whole time. Pays yous moneys takes yous chances.

 

[elder999]

Yeah, the Sheriff called the feds because her hands were tied.
That's great, let congress make it legal then. Unless and until that is done it will remain illegal. So called medical marijuana is such a scam in CA, do you want to consume weed? Pay $150, get a card, smoke to your heart's content. What a load of crap.

"Hands were tied?"How, exactly?

Was the farm licensed by the state of California to produce marijuana for medical purposes? Because that's the only way I can see her hands being tied. If they weren't a licensed producer, then-outside of going to the feds-the sheriff had ample resources to make this raid: aviation for collection of evidence, judges to grant search warrants, and a SWAT team to make the raid.

If the farm was licensed, well, yeah, she had to call in the feds because there's a conflict between state and federal law, and the feds seem to think they have grounds to do this sort of thing....and maybe they do. Point is that, unless the farm was a licensed producer (and that's the way it works in NM, not sure at all how it's supposed to work in Californistan) the sheriff could have done something about it as soon as she had knowledge.

 

[Big Don]

With 80000 some plants, unless 8000 people were working collectively on the farm, they were in the wrong.

 

[elder999]

With 80000 some plants, unless 8000 people were working collectively on the farm, they were in the wrong.

Then how were the sheriff's hands tied?

 

[Big Don]

CA does NOT actively investigate or prosecute marijuana related crimes, ergo, she could do nothing BUT, call the feds.

 

[elder999]

CA does NOT actively investigate or prosecute marijuana related crimes, ergo, she could do nothing BUT, call the feds.

Is that by statute, or by default? 'Cause, if it's by default, her hands weren't tied, and she could have done as was done, and iwthout the feds....I mean, she's county-if she had a prosecutor on her side, a judge willing to grant a warrant, I don't understand what the problem is here at all......

 

[granfire]

hmm if it's a crime it's a crime....
now, the growing of it seems to be no longer criminal in Ca, only on a fed level....(did not somebody tell me the other day that fed law beats cali law?!)

I am sure there is much more to the story.....MUCH more....

 

[Archangel M]

Is that by statute, or by default? 'Cause, if it's by default, her hands weren't tied, and she could have done as was done, and iwthout the feds....I mean, she's county-if she had a prosecutor on her side, a judge willing to grant a warrant, I don't understand what the problem is here at all......

Doesn't matter if it's by statute or not if the local DA outright states that he/she will not prosecute if make an arrest. Who knows what the local politics with the DA there is? I could tell you stories....