Oregon Cannabis Ranch in connection with alleged human trafficking

A ranch in southern Oregon was reportedly raided last week on suspicion of various illegal activities, including alleged cannabis cultivation and human trafficking.

According to a report on Jefferson Public Radio, the Josephine County, Oregon Sheriff’s Department conducted the raid on Wednesday as “part of a larger investigation that began with the death of a man on another illegal marijuana farm.”

“The man was driven to the Chevron gas station in Cave Junction in critical condition and left there,” the report said. “The man later died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Within two days of his death, that farm on Martin Road was harvested and the workers moved to this ranch called Q Bar X Ranch in the Illinois Valley. “

The broadcaster said the human trafficking allegations “followed several emergency calls made from the property and a source kept anonymous for their own safety,” with Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel saying the farms the appearance of cartels.

“We heard that if you don’t come your family will be harmed,” Daniel told Jefferson Public Radio. “And then they are transported to the site. As far as we know, these workers aren’t paid until the end of the year when the delivery starts and the money arrives. There is no weekly payroll here. “

The investigation is a huge effort, with the county sheriff’s department backed by more than a dozen other state and federal law enforcement agencies, including both the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The raid itself turned out to be just as substantial. Jefferson Public Radio reported that 250 law enforcement officers entered the property, which stretched over 1,300 acres and included 200 workers. “After the operation was completed, 10 firearms and $ 140,000 in cash were confiscated. In addition, 72,283 marijuana plants were destroyed along with 6,000 pounds of processed marijuana and 373 greenhouses. When the more than 250 police officers entered the property, they found the workers in dire conditions, sleeping on cardboard mats or in tents, ”the report said.

The report said that the workers “denied they were victims of human trafficking” and that no arrests were made.

Recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon, but breeders must be licensed. Voters in the state legalized weed in 2014 when they passed a poll to allow recreational marijuana use for adults aged 21 and over. A year later, pharmacies opened their doors to customers.

Last week’s raid in Josephine County commemorates a similar operation in Oklahoma that was disbanded earlier this summer. According to local broadcaster FOX 25, the Oklahomas Bureau of Narcotics blew up an unlicensed “grow operation that included a 40-acre, 24,000 plant farm with an estimated marijuana value of $ 36 million” in June. The raid exposed “20 to 30 Hispanic men” [who] worked on the farm and were potentially victims of human trafficking, ”the broadcaster reported at the time.

“Although none of them voluntarily claimed to be victims, these men were forced to live in appalling conditions. They stayed in makeshift barracks with no electricity or running water on the property. They seemed to bathe and wash their clothes in a less hygienic and stagnant stream / pond nearby. Interviews revealed that they had not been paid and were told that they would receive a percentage of the profit after the harvest, “a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics told the broadcaster.