Mexican Gangs Use U.S. National Parks as Pot Fields

Not far from Yosemite National Park in Sequoia National Forest, Mexican drug gangs are using American public land to grow their marijuana. Pot has always been gown on public lands but these gangs are taking it up a notch and are using armed guards and tripwire, booby-traps to protect their crops. Some of these fields contain tens of thousands of plants and can yield more than 30 tons of weed a year.

The risk for the gangs is significantly less as they don't have to smuggle the drugs over the boarder. They are grown and dried in the remote locations within the US and are then more easily transported to dealers in nearby cities. Experts say that the only risk to the Mexican growers would be for a hiker or hunter to stumble across the operation. This is a large risk to the visitors to these parks as there is a large potential for conflict should they happen upon a field.

Sequoia National Forest, as well as Yosemite, Sequoia, and Redwood National Parks are all covered in patches of these fields. They are located far away from hiking and other trails and are often hidden along creeks and streams in the mountains. The farmers also use animal poisons to protect their crops which can contaminate nearby streams and other sources of water, hurting wildlife.