Motorcycle Gangs and Marijuana
 

Annual Sturgis Motorcycle RallyBy Jackie Henman, Regional Law Enforcement Specialist
August 11, 2006

Midwest Region and parks in South Dakota – Mount Rushmore, Jewel Cave, Wind Cave and Badlands – are gearing up for impacts from the 66th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which takes place this week in Sturgis, South Dakota. Concerns have already been raised about potential violence. On the afternoon of August 8th, a drive-by shooting occurred in Custer State Park, which is located within a few miles of both Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave. About a dozen members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club and their associates were in a parking lot at the Legion Lake Resort when two men in a pickup truck drove by and began firing a weapon. Five shooting victims and another victim with a separate injury were transported to area hospitals – three of them remain hospitalized. All victims were affiliated with the Outlaws. The two shooting suspects, one of whom was associated with the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club, were apprehended without incident later that evening. During the rally, motorcyclists, including various motorcycle gangs, converge on the Black Hills of South Dakota and frequent area parks. In anticipation of potential violence, the Midwest Region special event team, a special agent, and other personnel were positioned in advance at Mount Rushmore and other NPS areas. They remain on high alert and will maintain high visibility to discourage further violence and to increase public safety at NPS sites for the remainder of rally week.

Confrontation With Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
By Hugh Dougher, Chief Ranger, Midwest Region; Mike Pflaum, Chief Ranger, Mount Rushmore NM
August 14, 2006

On Thursday, August 10th, between 80 and 100 members of the Outlaws, an outlaw motorcycle gang attending the nearby Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, purposefully committed a number of traffic violations while riding as a pack through the park. The manner in which the ride was conducted suggested an intent to display power, as it occurred only two days after five members of their gang were shot in nearby Custer State Park by two members of the rival Hells Angels (see last Friday’s edition or click on “More Information” below). Park and Midwest Region special event team rangers identified the group’s chase vehicle, separated it from the pack, then conducted a high-risk vehicle stop. The rangers demonstrated both tactical and force superiority and exercised situational control throughout the stop. The vehicle was occupied by four members of the Outlaws. They were identified and interviewed and the driver was cited. They were told to pass along to their leadership that national parks are owned by the public – not motorcycle gangs – and that disrespect, such as violating traffic laws, would not be tolerated. Later that same evening, another group of approximately 30 Outlaws passed through the park. They obeyed all traffic laws.

Over 12,000 Marijuana Plants Seized From Three Plantations
By Jeff Sullivan, Supervisory Special Agent
August 14, 2006

On August 9th and 10th, the park’s special response team and special agents assigned to Yosemite assisted officers from the Forest Service, the Mariposa County Sheriff's Office, the Bureau of Land Management, and an eradication team from CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Production, part of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement) in the investigation and eradication of three marijuana plantations in the Merced River Canyon on the western boundary of the park. The gardens had been spotted by NPS agents and sheriff's deputies while conducting reconnaissance flights with the California National Guard in July of this year. The two raids netted 12,451 marijuana plants, with an estimated street value of approximately $35,720,000. Two of the gardens had suspects in them, but they were able to elude apprehension. Two firearms were seized in the gardens and evidence collected will be valuable in curtailing international marijuana cultivation on public lands.

I hate it when good marijuana just goes to waste like that.:(
That raid was the fourth in less than a month, all in our National Parks. But one incident report included an interesting notation:

"There were different varieties of marijuana plants, including several strains that appear to have been genetically altered. These new plants have only three leaves, and take less time to mature, allowing growers a chance to plant more than one crop in a season. In addition, the plants are shorter (less than three feet) which makes detection more difficult."

And I shall call it...

Mini-Weed.

Bill & Ben look on, askance.......


'Weed? Flommerambistcom!'

My ex was just at Sturgis and called it "interesting". LOL

He's the man who doesn't talk. Doubt I'll get much more out of him.

The Hell's Angels/Outlaws riff, has been ongoing. We even had a taste of it here, at a Knight's of Columbus/Toys For Tots, drop off. Since Hells Angels moved much of their political and financial operation to Canada, the Outlaws seem to think that means the Angels are weaker down here. They're not.
$2900 per plant....every plant? C'mon.
International? federal hyperbole. :rolleyes:

Someone is overlooking a real quick and easy way to retire the national debt.

And to reduce violence in society. Alcoholics, meth and crackheads, heroin addicts, speed freaks...they could probably ween themselves off those drugs by gettin high. It's safer and more calming. Just look at what happens in most cities when the bars close. All the drunk dudes that don't "get" any start fighting and bustin up stuff. If everybody just got stoned, it would just be a late-night run on pizza.

I can't smoke weed anymore. There's too much THC in my bones from all the toking I did in high school. My school really was "high" school. One toke and it triggers all that latent THC. It's really too much.

That's why you need mini weed, it's for when you just want to get a "little high"

Actually, no. The Mexican drug cartels have set up shop in so many locations around Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks, up the road from me, that we frequently see news about the latest "haul" off the mountainsides. Rarely do the agents actually catch the growers, it appears that they have stationed illegal immigrants at the sites, with sophisticated warning systems set up everywhere so that they escape, leaving irrigation equipment, fertilizers and quite a large cache of supplies and food, sometimes weapons. Rangers now consider international pot growers to be more dangerous in our national parks than almost any other possibility that a tourist can get themselves into, and there is actually a protocol about what somebody should do when they stumble upon one of these operations (back away and run for your life).

In case somebody doesn't understand the dynamic: One reason these folks are growing dope on public property is asset forfeiture laws. For some reason the Feds don't seize National Parks and sell them off when the "owners" fail to adequately police their property for illegal activities.:3_eyes:

Oh for God's sake Griff. Can't you see the writing on the wall? This is exactly how we'll be able to practically hand over the national parks to oil and mineral and logging companies. It's part of the next installment of the cheney halliburton bechtel government by plunder plan.

Jeez, be patient. It will take a couple of years.

I doubt a Mexican drug lord planned for that possibility, they seem to not care much that their operations get discovered and destroyed frequently, they have so many. In the case of Yosemite and Kings Canyon, the main reason seems to be the isolation and inaccesability of the hillsides and canyons where they set up, only backpackers in wilderness areas will ever see them. There has been so much sophisticated equipment uncovered at these bases that it makes one wonder how they got it all in, they could not exactly take a pack train through there without being observed. The feds are now using some of the same technology they took to Colombia and Peru, helicopters with infrared scopes, satellite photos, they know they are in the right area when they draw fire from the ground :neutral:

I don't believe it, Tonchi. I think the International Drug Lords story is the state/feds trying to freak the public out of attempting to do a little harvesting for themselves, from the pot farms on public lands.

These have been around as long as I can remember, and yes, they have always been seriously defended with booby traps and shit. The guys fresh back from Nam knew lots of tricks. It wouldn't surprise me that the illegals are into it also, they're into everything else.

It might be the state trying to drum up federal money, too. Or the Feds in CA trying to provide themselves with a little job security without actually having to defend the homeland. ;)

Well, it just wouldn't be a very fun thing for you to do, and probably you had your tongue firmly in cheek as you wrote that anyway, but if you want you can research it through fresnobee.com. Because I worked as an interpreter, I got some news from the courthouse when the feds would catch one or two of these guys. They did not even know where they were going when they were recruited or that they would be spending 6 months completely alone in the mountains of El Norte, but they liked the money they were promised.

Now, if you want to know where the real heavy-duty pot farming is, look at Sonoma. Practically every native there has at least one plot, and the rumor when I lived in SF back in the 80's was that pot farming was shoring up the entire economy up there, it was just about the only money that many families got, so the sherrifs never tried very hard to search and destroy. Of course, that was before the newly-rich folks and their McMansions came in, maybe the natives can't even afford to live there anymore.

True. Smaller operators are probably more affected.