How Uninhabited Terrain Became A Hotbed For Black Market Marijuana

Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

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.