Justice Department Removes Pot on Public Lands, $1 Billion in Drugs Destroyed
The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that it is conducting an operation to eradicate illegal marijuana farms currently operating in national parks across the western half of the country.
Federal agents and U.S. attorneys in seven states revealed on Tuesday that they are conducting an 8-week operation to eradicate illegal marijuana farms on public land. Officials state the operation started on July 1 and agents have reportedly destroyed 578,000 plants with a value north of $1 billion, according the Justice Department.
The operation was called Mountain Sweep and involved prosecutions against alleged growers and seizures in California, Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. The Drug Enforcement Administration, National Park Service and other federal agencies worked with local police to conduct the operation.
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In California alone, there were 96 different grow sites and 28 suspects were indicted on federal charges, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Isolated areas and rugged terrain offer illegal growers an environment to conduct their grow operation. Authorities have stated previously that growers have been found living at the grow site while they wait to harvest the crop. They also have uncovered large amounts of trash, miles of irrigation lines and both fertilizer and pesticides at various grow sites.
"[Marijuana growers] pose a safety threat to the public and an environmental threat to the land," U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner told reporters.
The operation used resources from the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, authorities said.
"Marijuana trafficking organizations seek to turn our nation's parks and public lands into their own drug havens," DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said in a statement.
"Operation Mountain Sweep is a concerted effort to reclaim these wild and beautiful areas and protect them from further destruction and exploitation," she added
