Sheriff warns of marijuana ballot question after $15M drug bust
PUEBLO COUNTY, COLO. — Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor is warning marijuana legalization activists of the potential dangers of legalizing the drug after deputies uncovered a $15 million marijuana operation that included more than 7,000 plants.
Taylor’s team, which first discovered the marijuana grow in the San Isabel National Forest off Highway 165 in Rye back in January, collected evidence leading them to believe it is a Mexican drug cartel operation.
“If you don’t think they’re here, they are and if we pass Amendment 64, there’s going to be a lot more of them,†Taylor said in a statement released by his office Thursday following the first two arrests linked to the operation.
I suppose he also found Mexican cartels brewing Coors.
so which is the “dangerous” factor: the number of plants, or the amount of money?
The fact that they gave that moron a badge, gun and position of authority, me thinks.
I’m guessing it was the high level of “sophistication”:
Water, fertilizer, and sunlight?! In a “conventional” illegal grow, you might find one of those components, maybe even two. But it looks like our narcoterrorist adversaries have finally figured out a way to combine all three in a single grow. What kind of deadly synergy is that set-up capable of producing? I don’t even want to speculate. I just thank God that men like Kirk Taylor are on the job and that they got there in time. But this sentence is going to keep me up tonight:
Nine?! We’re facing this kind of menace and we only threw nine agencies at it? Maybe we really are broke.
Why is it always the ‘sheriff and his deputies’ who always screw up law enforcement? Is it the whole sheriff of Nottingham thing? Or is it because it’s often the case that no police training or education is required by a sheriff’s department, because it’s an elected office? Further research is required.
Sheriff Kirk Taylor: “If marijuana is legal, then marijuana will be legal.â€
Oh really?
And it’s obviously the “work of the cartel(s)…because if it ain’t, we don’t get no terrorist money from the feds….â€
7000 plants. 15-megabucks? Roughly 2-kilobucks wholesale-CA per plant, but only if each plant produces one pound of medical grade, cured, trimmed bud. Good luck, or mighty green thumb, or whatever. No one said basic math was a job requisite for an elected office or a prohibitionist.
I’m guessing they’re using the “cutting drugs with b.s. math” – and that probably IS the value = IF it’s sold – thru multiple steps/hands and their figuring the total sales from the “retail” (dimebag?) value… Maybe??
They have to make them selves look good somehow & “value”/amount seized = is apparently the only way they prove their “worth” as “law enforcement” these days… I mean, real criminals are dangerous ya know!
.
.
At least when the plants are outside there’s better than the proverbial snowballs chance of producing umpteen ounces of finished product. When they’re inside under lights they’ll calculate their bullshit numbers without bothering to notice that the building’s electrical supply makes it impossible to reach those estimations. Heck, you don’t even have to notice that there’s not enough square feet in the structure to produce anywhere near that much.
It’s already apparent to me that the people on the other side of the table are pulling out all the stops because of the ballot initiatives. People in Colorado and the 3 left coast States need to be particularly careful until Election Day as there’s no doubt in my mind that activities which wouldn’t draw the attention of authorities in ‘normal’ times may find themselves on their radar as we approach Election Day.
Here’s an example:
Dang it Duncan, what the frack are you talking about? A bust like that is just another day at the office for the enemies of freedom. Indeed, but in this season leading up to Election Day we find this in the story:
I mean, c’mon, hundreds of pounds is a “significant” export when multi-ton busts are a weekly event on our Southern border?
P.S. I realize that California has no ballot initiative but the “do we want our State to be like California” resonates in the minds of the prohibitionists. It’s also the State where we’re most likely to find events that will feed the propaganda mills since it has 12% of the US population and the least restrictive as well as the longest established medicinal cannabis patient protection laws. I’m sure that the prohibitionist parasites prefer stories attached to the 3 States with ballot initiatives, but I think that they won’t hesitate to employ events from other States in their hysterical rhetoric. People would be well advised to be extra careful until Election Day. Better yet, take a vacation.
IDK who the “they” is but if “they’re” a legal business(es) = That’s a huge chunk of change for the local economy – both in sales taxes & possible exponential growth of sales for Garden/Nursery supply stores…
And of course any other ancillary/associated economic stimulus from service industries, restaurants, grocery stores, etc.
Based on the article he’s seriously NOT making a good argument…
The problem here is that you’re allowing yourself to be confused by facts. The prohibitionists never allow factual evidence to be a factor.
If nothing else,,I want the cops to sell my marijuana cause they always get more money than anyone else for their pot,,,apparently.
Thank you, officer Barbrady.
(South Park reference for those of you unfamiliar with the animated man)
Why isn’t there a quote from Deputy Fife?
I wish more cops where like sheriff Andy Taylor.
-doesn’t carry a gun
-understands the importance of the 4th Amendment
-Only allows his less than smart deputy to carry one bullet.
Sheriff Taylor did bust bootleggers and home stills.
But that doesn’t fit with the narrative I was trying to paint.
Is that how the prohibitionists do it?
.
.
How the heck did we end up with Forbes Magazine on our side of the table? The last time I checked Steve Forbes was an extreme, foaming at the mouth prohibitionist. It appears to me that the cohort of people on our side of the table who are former Know Nothing prohibitionists is growing to significance.
That article certainly is an example of just how influential our constant drum beating has been on this issue. How many mainstream media articles have you seen that discusses the benefit of vaporization?
Since the Internet allows information to flow two ways, and thanks to dedicated “Muckrakers” like yourself, the prohibitionist parasites can no longer spew lies and propaganda and not be taken to task for it.
Kudos Duncan
IIRC Steve’s father Malcolm was a libertarian and on our side.
The number of plants and pumped up valuation proves to me that’ve never gotten over the Vietnam “body count” deception.
.
.
What really drives me nucking futz is the thought of a sworn peace officer on overtime getting paid to count stalks.
.1..2…3….4…..5……6…….7……..8………(etc. etc. etc.) Thanks, that’ll be $44.50 an hour + hazard pay since “drug” busts are so dangerous…how many man hours do you think it would take to count 7,000 stalks? Oh shit, I must be allergic to merrywanna. I got a rash from counting all those stalks, now I need 2 weeks on paid sick leave.
I havta tell y’all… yesterday I actually feared for my life. Harking back to the Columbia MO Great Pot SWAT Raid I arrived at a client’s home and when they opened the front door… THREE Welsh Corgies, their 3″ legs churning like a horde of galloping demons, came charging at me! I so feared the threat of shredded ankles I had to resort to scratching their heads to calm them. I understand now why a crew of heavily armed (and armored) trained law enforcement officers (LEOs –meeow) had to shoot when threatened by such a vicious pet. People worry about Pit Bulls when the really dangerous dogs are those Corgies!
Good thing they weren’t Pugs; they might shoot deadly, high-velocity boogers from their mashed-in snouts when they sneeze (and they drool a lot, too)! And they like to approach strangers at high speed (being one of the most gregarious and friendly breeds around), and in packs, mouths open, threatening the newcomer (with being licked to death)! Their low center of gravity enables them to make tight corners at maximum velocity (unless they run into something or each other in their exuberance to greet you)! And those undershot jaws can give a vicious bite! (Not).
Honestly, haven’t any of those fearless, brave, canine-killing paragons of virtue ever had a dog?.
eeewww Kap, pug snot… gross!
Hey, you take the good with the bad. They can’t help it; we Humans did it to them in breeding them that way.
But I’d still rather have their grumbling, sneezing, snorting, slightly daft company than a DrugWarrior’s…
Ex-Border Patrol union head accused of fraud
http://tinyurl.com/8dtsvuu
SAN DIEGO (AP) — As the leader of the national union representing Border Patrol agents, Terence J. Bonner traveled often. A fixture on cable television and in congressional hearings, he was highly sought by reporters for his pithy commentaries on border security.
So it was not uncommon for him to seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements over his 22 years at the National Border Patrol Council, some in the form of expense claims and others as premium pay for working overtime. The problem, federal prosecutors say, was that the money he claimed was for personal reasons, such as visiting his mistress in Chicago and downloading pornography at home on hard drives purchased for the union.
O/T,,but isn’t it nice that the Feds are persecuting one of the aholes that lobby against ending prohibition.
(Facepalm) Don’t they ever tire of looking the fool for the sake of ideology?
Modern law enforcement, when it comes to public pronouncements on illicit drugs, particularly cannabis, sound suspiciously like the old Sovs and their ‘party line’, from which they rarely deviate, only attempt to add more variations to a theme that’s long discredited in the thinking public’s eyes. When half the population wants cannabis legal, you know it’s been.
Normally, I’d pity them; anything more technologically advanced than a spoon is ‘sophisticated’ to them. This is straight from the old DEA ‘debate manuals’ they developed way back in the 1990’s to engage with us…and never used for the express purpose of doing so, for fear of having their premises laughed off the street and those promoting them face scathing rebuttals and public embarrassment.
Nope, they kept them in reserve for this kind of bilge. I imagine it’s like a Chinese restaurant menu; mix n’ match phrases in the hope that they sound like they have a higher intelligence level than actually possessed.
Which, obviously, hasn’t helped any…
Well, there is one illegal activity that once prohibition ends I will be glad to see Law Enforcement clamping down on: commercial agriculture in national parks.
Won’t it be nice once we can again grow cannabis in the open? And hemp flower medicine is just another herbal remedy? This day will come, long time coming, but it will happen once these lying prohibitionist scum are off the case.
.
.
It’s their fault that there are people doing that on public land. Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to congratulate someone who shoots somebody prior to saving their life by performing CPR.
.
.
Presume for a moment that you are a LEO who specializes in drug busts, just for the sake of this hypothetical of course. One day you wake up and your worst nightmare is headline news in your morning paper; the State Legislature has decriminalized the petty possession of merrywanna. You feel the ice cold grip of fear on your soul and shudder in mortal terror. There goes 99% of your arrests, right out the window. How in the world will you meet your arrest quota? What will you do? How will you make ends meet without all that easy overtime pay?
2 Charged With Trying to Buy Marijuana on Craig’s List
Because I believe global drug prohibition got its umph from Anslinger, which created the basis of the 1961 U.N. Single Convention on Narcotics –I believe America is at fault for global drug prohibition (or at least being as harmful as it is or lasting as long as it has). Because I believe that Actions Speak louder than words: not wanting to legalize pot in any state, would retard other states from doing so, thus retarding Legalization in America and so forth in North America and U.N. Nations and non-U.N. nations (with exceptions), thus meaning I have friends who still have to go through horrible war fighting drug money in the Middle East: this Sheriff is a Muslim Terrorist –how I can prove this –how this is a fact and not my opinion: the terrorists want drug money which comes form illegal drugs –the sheriff wants drugs to be illegal, which creates drug money, therefore they are on the same side –even if they worship different ways. If America’s military was at war with let’s say: Santa’s Elves, whom used drug money at the North Pole to kill my friends and shoot at me, I would consider this Sheriff to be a North Pole Elf –but I believe actions speak louder than words. The sheriff is not concerned with how many U.S. soldiers he has killed via allowing drug money to stay in the hands of militants . . . because he isn’t refusing to disobey federal drug laws . . . if he would simply boycott drug laws or resign, he would be an American citizen, but anyone who commits treason during a time of war, loses the right to be a citizen and he is therefore a Muslim Terrorist and not an American citizen –no matter how many times he might worship in a Christian Church or believe in atheism or salute MY FLAG or pledge allegiance to MY NATION -or buy American made products etc. And I believe he’s a stupid cop as well with his thoughts on legalization would bring the Mexican thugs over here. Now, I don’t personally picture this Sheriff worshiping Allah or praising Osama or Sunni over Shia . . . I don’t really think he is a part of some sleeper cell or gets private messages from clerics and omans . . . I don’t picture him actually reading a single word from the Koran, but he’s still a Muslim Terrorist based on the fact it’s America’s war on drugs (which went global in 1961) that empowers the Taliban and Al Qaeda with more money than they could ever dream of . . . they are on the same side of evil: destroying human life and freedoms. He is a terrorist. Now, what if he said all those things on purpose to disrupt the integrity of the drug war –then I will have a little bit more respect for him –trying to destroy the drug war from the inside –maybe.