Drug Lord's New Strategy
Pot Farming in National Parks
By Daniel Muniz

Now that drug running across the immensely porous border that the United States shares with Mexico has become increasingly difficult, the Mexican drug cartels are now utilizing an entirely different approach. They are growing marijuana in national and state parks on our side of the border.

For the longest time, critics believed that it was virtually impossible for the “War on Drugs” to even put a miniscule dent in the gargantuan flow of narcotics into the United States. After all, there are around 12 million illegal aliens who have easily slipped across our border through nefarious means and there are hundreds of thousands more who will try every year. In addition, Mexico is also a huge trading partner with America so cargo annually flows across the border on a vastly enormous scale. As a result, it is just not remotely possible to stop the drugs from coming in.

The critics were wrong!

First of all, the drug cartels in Mexico are ruthlessly brutal. They have absolutely no intention in giving up just because they are presented with an obstacle so they are not intimidated by anyone including governments and their militaries. The never-ending savagely bloody conflicts in the border towns on the Mexican side vividly demonstrate that they are willing to shoot dead mayors, police chiefs, judges, and anyone else who stands in their way. In fact, they even go as far as gunning down musicians who criticize them in their songs.

And with paid moles in the Mexican army and in their federal government, they have so much inside information.

But on the American side of the border it has been a very different story because the Mexican drug cartels have been dealt devastating blows to their drug trafficking. What has changed is that we now have a beefed up border with so much more manpower and high tech equipment to monitor it. And we now have better cooperation between local municipalities and federal authorities that have resulted in the record drug seizures.

So instead of a small insignificant dent, the War on Drugs has punched a huge gaping hole in the operations of the drug lords that have sent them reeling in pain because of lost profits.

Consequently, the cartels had to come up with a more direct approach for an answer to their problems.

If smuggling across the border is now too difficult to attempt, then why bother when marijuana can also be grown and cultivated inside the United States. And instead of transporting their drugs great distances, pot can be grown in or near the same state of where their major markets are at which eliminates another logistics problem.

Now these drug farms are not Cheech and Chong growing pot in their backyard.

The Mexican drug cartels fully intend to make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from their drugs so they have established sophisticated operations located deep inside very remote areas of national and state parks that are far away from the prying eyes of our border. It is this seclusion that allows them to freely grow and harvest marijuana on a large scale without being detected by local and federal authorities.

So how is it done?

As with any kind of farming on this magnitude there is a need for a huge water supply. Since there is not a water faucet or any irrigation network in a desolate area of a park, the pot farmers ingenuously improvised by simply damming up a creek or a small stream on much higher ground. Then using the force of gravity, the water goes miles downhill to smaller tubing which then winds up into drip lines for individual rows of plants.

To grow the marijuana while preventing anyone from filching their crops the drug lords have established semi-permanent campsites that include tents, farming equipment, lots of guns and ammunition, and all the supplies necessary for living months at a time out in the boondocks. Also, the operation is strictly compartmentalized so that no one person knows the entire scope of the plan. The farm workers only cultivate and protect the crops and have absolutely no knowledge of anything else. The drivers only ferry supplies, workers, and harvested plants.

Nearly all of the workers are illegal aliens who were already doing the same thing in Mexico. They are usually broken down into groups of family members and very trusted friends to keep everything about their operation quiet. And because there are so many communities of illegal immigrants, they can easily blend in with the nearby municipalities without attracting any unwarranted attention about their presence in this country.

Sadly, as hikers and others have found out the hard way, the pot farmers ferociously protect their marijuana fields and are willing to shoot anybody who stumbles upon them.

Such a mentality has put park rangers and local sheriffs in a precarious position because they are not trained to deal with such lowlife degenerates. Additionally, they are also outgunned. The drug cartels have a lot of military equipment to arm all of their workers with and they fully expect them to use it.

Fortunately, federal authorities are also getting involved. Using aerial surveillance and other forms of intelligence gathering, they are beginning to identify the ideal remote locations that the drug cartels are using to grow marijuana. The feds have then been able to destroy the pot crops and the intricate irrigation systems that water them. But they have also gone one step further in trying to apprehend mid and top level players in these organized crime rings instead of only arresting the people down at the bottom of the food chain.

Overall, progress for the War on Drugs can be made when our country has a focused and determined approach. Law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels has achieved amazing accomplishments especially when the cartels begin thinking outside the box with newer schemes. Although the drug lords are continuously being thwarted, they will not stop until they have been completely eradicated, which is the next step for our drug war.

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