Illegal cannabis operations have brought serious crime to California’s Siskiyou County, including robberies, theft, and five unsolved homicides, sheriff says.
SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif.—The air is thick with the unmistakable pungent stench of cannabis plants in a massive network of illegal grow operations in a rural part of northern California, as Mount Shasta looms on the horizon.
Gated-off with chain link and wire fences—some with tattered shreds of privacy screening—the properties northeast of Weed, Calif., near Montague, are a compound of ramshackle huts, old RVs, and cheaply-made greenhouses of hoops and plastic.
Several spotters in vehicles patrol the dusty roads, watching for police and intruders near the site off Shasta Vista Drive.
These “guards” are often armed with automatic rifles, according to Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue.
The sheriff estimates about 90 percent of the nearly 2,000 properties in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision are involved in illegal grow operations.
Miles from Interstate 5, the illegal grow operations are out-of-sight and out-of-mind for most people, but even a glance at a satellite map reveals the vast network.
“If you zoom out, that subdivision is pretty large—nine square miles,” Mr. LaRue said.
The lots are on volcanic soil. Unsuitable for water wells and septic systems, the land is far from an ideal spot to build a “dream home,” he said.
The once essentially uninhabited terrain is now scattered with makeshift shelters and other structures built without permits in camps that look like they belong “in a third-world country,” he said.
The illegal cannabis operations have brought serious crime, including robberies, theft, and five unsolved homicides, he said.
A recent armed robbery allegedly involved outsiders robbing people who were selling marijuana, Mr. LaRue said.
“That doesn’t happen, generally speaking, to people that are growing alfalfa or cherries, or strawberries or corn. So, it’s a crop that really brings just a massive amount of violent crime with it,” he said. “People are willing to die for marijuana for some reason.”
By Brad Jones
