10 indicted in $30M Oregon marijuana operation

[redog]

San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, August 20, 2009

Ten men from Washington state, California and Texas have been indicted on charges of running a $30 million marijuana operation on public lands in a remote area of Eastern Oregon.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Oregon said the case involves the seizure of more than 30,000 marijuana plants on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land in Malheur County.
The men listed in the federal grand jury indictment issued Tuesday were:
Agustin Mendoza-Mendoza, 26, Joel Birrueta-Contreras, 26, Jacobo Mendoza-Mendoza, 27, Jose Sanchez-Torres, 25, and Jose Palominos-Mendoza, 26, all of Pasco, Wash.; Guadalupe Garcia-Valencia, 30, of Yakima, Wash.; Oswaldo Rubio-Perez, 38 of Modesto, Calif.; Joel Castillo-Larios, 23, of Los Molinos, Calif.; and Gerardo Corona-Ochoa, 28, of San Angelo, Texas.
One of the men indicted, David Rivera-Corona, 39, of Benton County, Wash., was a fugitive.

 

[BlowCrack]

Damnnnnn

 

[pimpin]

do you know how they got caught them boys were putting in mad work

 

[dodietyme]

Damn..

 

[Papa_kush]

ppssshh
hmmm
wow

 

[paco666]

seems like way to many people to have involved in a gorilla grow....loose lips sink ships n that be a lot of lips....and a huge f'n ship...... doesn't sound like too many plants to me...just too many people.....

 

[zoeronerer]

San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, August 20, 2009

Ten men from Washington state, California and Texas have been indicted on charges of running a $30 million marijuana operation on public lands in a remote area of Eastern Oregon.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Oregon said the case involves the seizure of more than 30,000 marijuana plants on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land in Malheur County.
The men listed in the federal grand jury indictment issued Tuesday were:
Agustin Mendoza-Mendoza, 26, Joel Birrueta-Contreras, 26, Jacobo Mendoza-Mendoza, 27, Jose Sanchez-Torres, 25, and Jose Palominos-Mendoza, 26, all of Pasco, Wash.; Guadalupe Garcia-Valencia, 30, of Yakima, Wash.; Oswaldo Rubio-Perez, 38 of Modesto, Calif.; Joel Castillo-Larios, 23, of Los Molinos, Calif.; and Gerardo Corona-Ochoa, 28, of San Angelo, Texas.
One of the men indicted, David Rivera-Corona, 39, of Benton County, Wash., was a fugitive.

oh yeah but people keep telling me its an urban legend mexican gangs are fucking up the outdoor scene....these fools ALWAYS CARRY GUNS...fucking wack

 

[Venom818]

LOL I didn't read anywhere that they were mexican or gangsters u must have the inside info. EDDIE LEPP had over 30,000 plants was he a mexican gangster.LMAO ur funny

 

[bdawgburner]

I would guess by names alone that these men are hispanic. Maybe not mexican, but when you get a group of hispanic men together, growing 30,000 plants on federal land, the first thing I think of are the cartel grow busts I've heard of. Maybe thats profiling but when you see it happening repeatedly its kind of hard not to.

 

[ReelBusy1]

stay off public lands with your grows.
Lesson still being learned by those who like jail.

 

[devilrays]

Holy crap that's alot of plants!! Wow....what to even say to that.

 

[Elcapitan]

lets be honest and realistic.
all of the illegal growers being caught all over the entire country are not helping our cause. in fact they are harming us all in many obvious ways. i have seen huge operations being caught from michigan to south carolina to all over the west coast from the south west to the northwest and these busts always make big headlines and scare the heck out of the general public. last year LEO claimed they destroyed well over 1 million plants. i cannot blame these people for their efforts because we all know the usa is just like tony montana said in his famous scarface quote. illegal gangs are the only ones that make the news for some reason. we get lumped in with them in the public mindset and that is not a good thing for us. their actions and activities put us all at much higher risk than if they were not allowed here in the first place.
ec

 

[sososohigh]

damn...i guess they thought they could use public land forever!

 

[fractal]

It is really starting to piss me off righteously, I live near ground zero for alleged cartel grows. They are definitely happening everywhere whether professionally sponsored by cartels or freeelance and they are armed. So people hiking or hunting in the woods are going to be finding these grows inevitable. There was a massive one last month a half mile from a popular tourist attraction in sequoia park. And of course we don't find out publicly about people who end up buried in the woods after being executed. Most people are not really in the know about what is going on, as a grower I know people are taking advantage of the sunshine wherever they can and in some places stumbling over other grows while trying to find their own. Deer season starts this month in many places and I don't even know what other hunting is going on right now. But if I were going hunting in the forest I would NEVER go with less than 3 other guys and carrying two pistols plus hunting rifle. That these renegade grows exist is kind of scary and insulting to the idea of pubilc lands.

 

[potsherd]

What He said

:cool0044::cool0044::flower
Sorry dont talk much but need 10 posts for seed b;uy
:anim_52:

 

[46and2]

I'm not trying to be a smart aleck or trying to start anything.But it's my experience and I've been around awhile.Whether it was 2 plants or 30,000 I have never and I mean ever seen the press put someone who indulges or grows in a favorable light it's just the facts of life.

Maybe you've seen the press do this where you live.But I don't expect to in my life time to ever see this happen where I live.

 

[massqwon]

yup....

...happens all the time....this is just one of several in oregon this season and one of a bunch on the PNW...cartlel weed is like american grown beasters...1/2 to 1/3 the price of the rest of the local outdoor. alot of the cartel weed in pre-me...cut early cuz they the late season helicopters...F_CK these grows...the herb is junk...nobody local buys it...its people coming out here getting it as cheep junk herb to work back home in whatever state they came from...

 

[ismokepot]

well said el capitan......

 

[Elcapitan]

i doubt that much of their harvest gets exported back to korea, vietnam, mexico, cuba or other countries for medical or recreational consumption there. it is likely that they are flooding the markets here. its true that the press makes a mountain out of all molehills but i think that the public are not as worried about hobby growers with a few plants as they are the drug cartel gangs that are murdering people left and right and getting caught with thousands of plants and guns. back in the early days when smugglers were all kids with tons and no guns or violence ever the public and the feds seemed not to be too concerned. it was almost viewed as modern day rum running by the public. then when they shut that off and the market was forced into hard core commodities, along came the hard core folks and the guns and the scene turned violent.
these people are not your average laid back citizens.
they could really f it up for all of us.
ec

 

[CannabisSativa]

the weed the cartels is putting out is referred to as "wheel", "50" , "mid-grade", etc...

depending on how much you get, source,etc.. it can run from $600 a lb to $120 an oz,
basiclly the guys getting 100,200,500+ lbs at a time are paying the $600 , sale it for $1000 and then those guys sale it for $75 - $120 an oz.

I think it sucks they're here growing, just because of the lack of care for the land and the guns, killing people who walk up on it,etc.. but I will say It's pretty amazing how much they're putting out there.

I know one guy who gets 300 lbs every wk , thats just 1 guy , just think how many other people do that or even more - mind boggling numbers they're doing, Im pretty sure they have several major grows in every single state.

The only way to combat it is to stop giving them money but when people have no other choice of weed to buy they have to. That or stop smoking as only a very small % of smokers grow , and sadly the way the prices are set up for american grown quality bud only growers and people with alot of money can afford to smoke it , my only advise is for american growers to step up and flood the market with better weed for the same price but we all know thats not gonna happen , #1 factor - we as a people are greedy , me included,lol