Marijuana Harvest Season Sends Police Flying

09/05/2006

It's harvest season in the Northwest. Not just for wheat and apples, but also for marijuana. Austin Jenkins reports.

LT. RICH WILEY POSES WITH A TRUCK LOAD OF MARIJUANA PLANTS.

IT'S HARVEST SEASON IN THE NORTHWEST. NOT JUST FOR WHEAT AND APPLES. BUT ALSO FOR MARIJUANA.

THAT'S WHY AS SUMMER WINDS DOWN POLICE IN WASHINGTON, OREGON AND IDAHO ARE TAKING TO THE AIR IN SEARCH OF LARGE, OUTDOOR MARIJUANA GROWS.

THE MAJORITY ARE PLANTED ON PUBLIC LANDS AND - POLICE SAY - MANAGED BY MEXICO-BASED DRUG CARTELS. CORRESPONDENT AUSTIN JENKINS RECENTLY SPENT TWO DAYS EMBEDDED WITH NARCOTICS OFFICERS WORKING IN THE WENATCHEE AREA.

IT'S 9 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING AT PANGBORN MEMORIAL AIRPORT IN EAST WENATCHEE. HELICOPTERS COME AND GO. POLICE OFFICERS DRESSED IN DESERT CAMOUFLAGE AWAIT THEIR ORDERS.

THIS IS THE STAGING GROUND FOR WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL: OPERATION MARIJUANA ERADICATION.

SGT. LONG: "The National Guard is handling the Entiat drainage and the two DEA helicopters are going to go back to Zone A and Zone B."

THIS IS WEEK THREE OF A MONTH-LONG BLITZ TO SEARCH OUT AND DESTROY LARGE, OUTDOOR MARIJUANA GROWS IN CENTRAL WASHINGTON. THERE ARE FEDERAL AGENTS, STATE TROOPERS AND COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES.

CHELAN COUNTY SHERIFF MIKE HARUM SAYS MARIJUANA ERADICATION HAS BECOME AN ANNUAL EVENT IN THIS PRIME AGRICULTURAL REGION OF THE STATE.

MIKE HARUM: "We've got a beautiful county here and it's a great place to grow just about anything: apples, pears, cherries and marijuana which is kind of sad. But we're going to be very, very aggressive at trying to eradicate it."

SHERIFF HARUM SAYS IT USED TO BE THE LARGEST MARIJUANA GROWS HERE WERE A FEW HUNDRED PLANTS.

MIKE HARUM: "Now we're talking seven, eight, nine thousand plants out there and they're trying their best to try and hide it from us because they know we're looking from the air.

JOHN MONTEMAYOR: "Seatbelts are on. Doors are locked. Rock and Roll."

WASHINGTON STATE PATROL PILOT JOHN MONTEMAYOR TAKES ME ON AN AERIAL TOUR OF THE HILL COUNTRY NORTH OF WENATCHEE.

JOHN MONTEMAYOR: "You can see the helicopter below us."

THE DEA WON'T LET ME RIDE IN THEIR HELICOPTER. THIS IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS FLYING. THE CHOPPER MAKES LOW CIRCLES OVER A WINDY, TREE-COVERED CANYON. PILOT MONTEMAYOR SAYS THE SPOTTERS ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T BELONG.

JOHN MONTEMAYOR: "It's a lighter color green. It looks like a great big green q-tip is what it looks like."

MARIJUANA ON THE WESTSIDE OF THE CASCADES IS USUALLY GROWN INDOORS. BUT EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS THE CLIMATE LENDS ITSELF TO HUGE OUTDOOR GARDENS.

LAST YEAR A RECORD 136,000 PLANTS WERE SEIZED IN WASHINGTON.

LT. RICH WILEY HEADS THE WASHINGTON STATE PATROL'S NARCOTICS DIVISION. HE SAYS THE GARDENS ARE THE WORK OF MEXICO-BASED INTERNATIONAL DRUG TRAFFICKING ORGANIZATIONS.

RICH WILEY: "These same organizations that we're trying to target on the marijuana side are involved in methamphetamine and cocaine and heroin all coming up out of Mexico."

NOW IT'S DAY TWO OF OPERATION ERADICATION IN CHELAN COUNTY. A TEAM OF EIGHT NARCOTICS OFFICERS BOARD TWO HELICOPTERS. THEY TAKE OFF FOR A REMOTE SITE ON NATIONAL FOREST LAND WHERE A 3000 PLANT MARIJUANA GROW HAS BEEN FOUND.

LT. WILEY SAYS THIS GROW - LIKE MOST - IS SOPHISTICATED AND DAMAGING PUBLIC LAND.

RICH WILEY: "They've got a small creek that they were able to dam up. They've got PVC pipe running a significant distance, probably a half mile down the hillside. And then they've got a second holding pond where they kind of store water - a little reservoir - and then they've got lines that come out of that and go on down the hill."

NO SUSPECTS WERE FOUND IN THIS GROW. BUT OFFICERS DID FIND A CATHOLIC SHRINE WITH A CANDLE STILL BURNING.

TYPICALLY EACH GROW HAS AT LEAST TWO AND SOMETIMES AS MANY AS 20 FULL-TIME GARDENERS. THEY'RE USUALLY ARMED. THEY ARE MOSTLY MEN BUT THIS YEAR, FOR THE FIRST TIME, POLICE HAVE FOUND EVIDENCE THAT WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE ALSO LIVING IN THESE HIDDEN CAMPS.

LT. WILEY SAYS OFTEN THE GARDENERS ARE PAYING OFF THEIR DEBT FOR BEING SMUGGLED INTO THE U.S.

RICH WILEY: "Frankly the people that in many cases are out tending the grows are folks that are trying to do the right thing by their family back home in Mexico. Yes, what they're doing is illegal - we don't approve it - but it's the organizations that are behind them that are forcing them to do this and that are organizing it that we're really after."

RADIO TRAFFIC: "Winds are up to ten miles an hour - same direction out of the SW."

A HELICOPTER FERRIES BUNDLES OF MARIJUANA PLANTS TO A RIDGE THAT OVERLOOKS THE WENATCHEE VALLEY. NARCOTICS OFFICERS ON THE GROUND LOAD THE PLANTS INTO PICK-UP TRUCKS.

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: "Oh smells pretty. Man."

SOME OF THESE PLANTS ARE SIX FEET TALL AND THEY'RE STARTING TO BUD OUT. POLICE SAY THIS IS HIGH-QUALITY MARIJUANA. THEY ESTIMATE THIS GROW ALONE HAS A STREET VALUE OF NEARLY $6 MILLION.

LT. WILEY MAKES NO APOLOGIES ABOUT GOING AFTER CORPORATE MARIJUANA GROWS ON PUBLIC LANDS.

RICH WILEY: "I mean that's just atrocious. And it's happening in our Olympic National Park, it's happening in our public lands up and down the Cascades. I don't like that as a taxpayer. I don't want to think that my family can't go hiking on public lands and be safe."

LT. WILEY IS REALISTIC. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO STAMP OUT ALL THE MARIJUANA GROWS. BUT HE TAKES PRIDE IN DESTROYING DRUGS BEFORE THEY HIT THE STREET AND MAKING PUBLIC LANDS SAFER.

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