Oregon’s authorities are linking illegal cannabis farms to Mexican cartels

Police officers and other authorities in southern Oregon say a number of illegal marijuana growing activities in the area have been linked to Mexican drug cartels, which aim to capture local resources in order to maximize profits.

Officials declared a state of emergency in Jackson County last month, saying the proliferation of illegal cannabis farms has put a strain on local law enforcement and other resources. In a letter to Oregon Governor Kate Brown and state lawmakers, the Jackson County Board commissioners called for more resources and staff to support law enforcement and compliance in the area.

Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer told reporters that other illegal activities such as human trafficking, forced labor, and unsafe workers’ living conditions are linked to unregulated marijuana cultivation in Oregon, where cannabis trafficking is legal for licensed companies. He added that illegal operators intimidate and abuse their workers, who are often minors or parents of young children.

“This is antitrust activity,” said Dyer. “We’re seeing a human rights crisis with these grows.”

Oregon officials are seeking a regional solution

Jackson County officials hope their counterparts in neighboring Klamath and Josephine counties will declare a similar state of emergency so the region can send a unified message to leaders.

“It’s harder to ignore when it’s a regional emergency declaration,” Dyer said. “And the more united front we present, the harder it becomes to ignore it. It’s a regional problem and it could be a regional solution. “

Earlier this month, Klamath County’s deputies discovered a 27,000-square-foot potato shed filled with illegal cannabis at various stages of processing. Klamath County Sheriff Chris Klaber told the local media that “he has never seen anything like it in 30 years of policing”.

Following a search warrant on the property and further investigations, the illegal cannabis activity in the potato shed was linked to two other unlicensed marijuana growing and processing facilities in the area.

“I had to completely readjust my sense of where we stand in the fight against illegal marijuana production in Klamath,” said Klaber, as quoted by the Herald and News. “I didn’t think we were that far behind.”

“This is really – and I’ve said it before – organized criminal activity,” added Kaber. “This definitely matches the Oregon definition of what organized criminal activity is.”

Illegal activities overwhelm local resources

Sergeant Cliff Barden of the Oregon State Police Basin’s Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team also says the illegal cultivation is linked to drug cartels. He believes that the strategy of criminal organizations is to produce so much illegal marijuana that local law enforcement agencies are unable to keep up with the volume of illegal activity.

“You are deliberately trying to overwhelm the system,” he said. “And that’s why it’s so difficult.”

Barden acknowledged that many of the smaller farms are independent, unlicensed operators hoping to capitalize on the illicit market. But larger growers in Mexico are often controlled by drug cartels, sometimes through an intermediary in California.

“If it’s smaller greenhouses – one or two greenhouses or less – that can be all, generally just a small crew trying to make some money,” Barden said. “Almost all of the major grows – with dozens and dozen of greenhouses or more, especially this year – have all been exactly the same type of operations, all coordinated from outside the state and run by a middle-level person with ties to Mexico . “

Dyer noted that many of the farms that grow illegal marijuana pose as farms growing hemp, which is also legal in Oregon but less regulated.

“We find that 75 to 80 percent of these registered hemp crops grow illegal marijuana,” he said. “There are probably three or four times as many unregistered hemp crops as there are registered hemp crops.”

With the state of emergency and increased law enforcement, officials hope to create a deterrent to unlicensed activity that will help contain the tide of illegal cannabis cultivation. But before that can happen, they have to catch up lost ground for years.

“Our short-term goal here on the ground is essentially to show the organized crime operations that Klamath County is not a place to be left alone or safe, and that we will work aggressively to enforce the laws we have to make it harder to make a profit here, ”Barden said.

“After this year, with just a little assertiveness, hopefully we’ll gradually get better and better. I hope so. Before that year there really wasn’t much marijuana enforcement for a few years, and it exploded because of it. “