"It has been well documented that Mexican and Asian drug cartels have
been operating successfully in Siskiyou County. What has not yet been exposed
is who the specific local residents of Siskiyou County are who assist the
operations of those Mexican nationals," wrote Clausen in that edition.
"By the end of summer the information and documentation would be
undisputable and would have made a powerful story for both local and national
news outlets."
That week, Webster published a shocking editorial in which he
stated "When you are working to link extreme environmental organizations,
law enforcement, tribes, Asian and Mexican mafia and drug trafficking with all
of the water issues in our area, you create such amazing amounts of fear that
eliminating the primary messenger before he delivers his message is all part of
the game."
That edition drew a defining line in the sand. The true colors of some
property rights advocates came out. Those who had reportedly facilitated the
money laundering for the industry, began to withdraw much of their advertising
from the paper. Some members of law enforcement, who seemed to have looked the
other way when it came to the marijuana industry, ran around saying that those
writing for the Pioneer Press were delusional and making this up.
All of this did not dissuade the Pioneer Press from continuing to bring out
the truth of what was transpiring in our regional forests.
A few weeks later, John Martinez pointed his pen at the heart of the debate
when he wrote "During the past four years or so Daniel Webster and I have
mused if the North State is relevant to and warrants a national security
debate. Many readers will undoubtedly think it laughable that such a little
discussed, troublesome, and convoluted topic is opened. Other readers,
however, may view the topic as a laudable challenge to address.
Siskiyou, Trinity, Shasta, Del Norte and Humboldt Counties geographically
define the North State for this discussion. The operational definition used to
define national security is the potential, presence and wherewithal for
anti-US groups domestic or foreign to influence water policy along the Klamath
River."
Martinez didn't stop there. A few weeks later he wrote of a marijuana grow on
the Salmon River where it was apparent, although not reported by the
previous Siskiyou County sheriff, the late-Charlie Byrd, that the grow was
tied to Mexican drug cartels.
"A retired law narcotics officer with duty experience in Latin America
stated on the condition of anonymity that 'Šthe logistics was impressive.
This wasn't a few good old boys. This smacks of cartels with a working
knowledge of the local terrain. Local terrain being the physical
landscape and possible deep penetration of local and or state law enforcement.
Maybe even the U.S. Forest Service,'" Martinez wrote.
It was Pioneer Press Assistant Editor Liz Bowen's article during the marijuana
season of 2003 that first put the price tag of $1 billion on the industry in
Siskiyou County. Martinez wrote an accompanying special opinion which ran on
the Pioneer Press front page calling the billion dollar marijuana
industry the county's largest agricultural crop, dwarfing all other ag
production in Siskiyou County which accounts for $197 million.
"The growing drug trade dwarfs the legitimate agricultural market of the
county. In one medium size raid alone more than the total value of hay was
confiscated in a raid of 2,500 plants - a mere fraction of the billion-dollar
industry," Martinez wrote. "The international marijuana industry is
the dominant economic factor in Siskiyou County today. By virtue of its size,
relative to all other competing economic interests, the drug trade must exert
influence over our current political regime."
After the Pioneer Press began to publish these accounts, the main stream media
began to wake up and report on the Mexican drug cartels involvement in rural
northern California.
"In the past eight years, the agency has found itself in an ongoing
battle with Mexican drug-trafficking organizations that investigators say have
moved across the border to carve networks of clandestine marijuana plantations
into national forests and other public lands deep inside U.S. territory,"
Sean Markey reported in National Geographic from Redding, California on
November 4, 2003.
"No longer is marijuana cultivation the cottage industry that flourished
in the 1960s and '70s after waves of counterculture migrants bought cheap land
in the northern California mountains and grew pot for their own use and extra
income," John Ritter reported in USA Today in October of 2005.
"Mexican criminals using sophisticated methods have spread the marijuana
industry across California, traditionally the nation's main domestic source
because of a mild climate and vast stretches of isolated landscape ideal for
clandestine growing, say the authorities."
"National parks' pot farms blamed on cartels - Mexican
drug lords find it easier to grow in state than import," the San
Francisco Chronicle headlined an article on northern California marijuana
farms on November 18, 2005.
Now, nearly every major newspaper and news channel has run a story on the
Mexican drug cartels involvement with northern California's pot trade.
And Pioneer Press readers learned of it here first.
But the story is not finished yet. Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins, who
was the first to arrest Mexican cartel connections in our region, is ready to
go again. It's time for Marijuana Season 2006.
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