Pubdate: Sun, 4 Nov 2007
Source: Detroit Lakes Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2007 Forum Communications Co.
Contact:  http://www.dl-online.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4607
Photo: A barn and a number of buildings five miles northeast of New 
York Mills were filled with about 20 tons of marijuana as part of a 
factory-style cultivation and distribution operation. Agents raided 
the farm 20 years ago and arrested 17 people from Kentucky. 
http://www.mapinc.org/images/MNmarijuanabust.jpg
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Marijuana - Popular)

MARIJUANA BUST 20 YEARS AGO INTRIGUING PIECE OF AREA HISTORY

Ask around and what New York Mills is best known for is Lund Boats, 
girls basketball of the 1970s and '80s, and the biggest marijuana 
bust, at the time, in state history. Twenty years later and the 
famous drug bust still comes up in conversation, with locals joking 
and carrying the state's largest marijuana bust of 1987 as a sort of 
badge of honor for the community.

Boats. Basketball. Drug Bust.

Twenty years ago last week -- Oct. 24, 1987 -- law enforcement agents 
raided a farm north of New York Mills and seized 20 tons of marijuana 
with an estimated street value of $20 million. According to newspaper 
reports at the time those figures later doubled to 40 tons and $40 
million after federal officials seized the farm and fields.

Arrested and taken into custody were 17 people, all from Kentucky, 
who purchased and moved on to the farm about six months prior to the big bust.

Agents seized the marijuana in barns, silos and storage sheds. 
Authorities also found mature, uncultivated marijuana plants in a 
nearby field. According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. 
District Court, officers "searched the farm area and discovered a 
highly sophisticated growing and packaging system."

There were "No Trespassing" signs, men in camouflage carrying guns 
and guard dogs at the farm, making sure nobody wandered onto the 
property. These good ol' boys from Kentucky weren't real neighborly, 
and in the end, that's what did them in. Neighbors became suspicious 
of all the secrecy and odd behavior, with nobody allowed on the 
property and vehicles coming and going in the middle of the night.

A story in the NY Mills Herald said the arrests followed about a week 
of investigation by the Otter Tail County Sheriff's Department and 
the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

A number of people in the neighborhood, who asked not to be 
identified at the time, said that the volume of traffic in and out of 
the farm, at odd times day and night, was one of the more unusual occurrences.

Also noted was a tendency of the farm's residents, when returning, to 
drive past the property then double back. "When someone drove into 
their yard, it looked like there were people ducking and hiding," 
said one neighbor in a Herald story that year. "As the summer went 
on, the farm's residents added more security devices, including a 
trip wire at the end of the drive that would trigger an alarm if 
someone drove in."

That kind of behavior draws attention in rural Minnesota where people 
need to know their neighbors' business.

Alan "Lindy" Linda, who had the hardware store in town in 1987, went 
out on regular service calls and remembers despite the bust and what 
was being grown on the farm, some of the neighbors didn't have real 
negative reactions to the Kentucky crew growing marijuana. The fact 
the new residents weren't real friendly seemed, in Lindy's opinion, 
to bother local farmers more than what the farmers were growing.

"Leading up to the bust was more of an accumulative thing. They 
didn't shop in town. They didn't go to church in town. And they 
didn't buy building materials in town," Lindy said.

The Big Bust

The bust went with law enforcement using the Trojan horse technique. 
The agents rolled up on the farm in a pickup pulling a trailer that 
held hidden agents. Thirteen law enforcement officials were in on the 
initial bust, including the BCA, Otter Tail County Sheriff's Office, 
New York Mills and Fergus Falls police, and the Department of Natural 
Resources.

A man and a woman were apprehended immediately. The other suspects 
fled and were rounded up over the course of several hours. All 
suspects arrested were wearing survival-type army fatigues, and some 
had weapons.

Raymond Lee of New York Mills was a senior in high school in 1987 and 
working for his dad, Don Lee. They were called on by law enforcement 
to haul the marijuana to a nearby field where the pot was burned. 
Raymond and Don hauled 64 loads of marijuana from the barn and other 
buildings to the field where it was burned. The marijuana already 
packaged was kept by the Otter Tail County Sheriff's Department, for 
use as evidence. Law enforcement officials estimated that the plants 
still standing in the field equaled the amount of the drug that was 
burned. The plants left in the field were destroyed by plowing them under.

Raymond worked with the agents to clean up the farm and recalls the 
barn had wires strung from side to side with marijuana hung on the 
wires to dry. He said the drug farmers used a trash compactor to put 
the weed in cubes, which were then wrapped in cellophane. Buildings 
were full, silos were full, everywhere the pot could be stored.

Then, Raymond recalls, when they figured the farm was pretty well 
cleaned out and all the pot rounded up someone discovered a couple 
large mounds covered with tarps behind the barn. They looked like 
regular compost piles, but low and behold, it was more marijuana.

Pot Growers

The 17 Kentucky residents arrested in Minnesota's largest marijuana 
raid pleaded for leniency in May of 1988 before a federal judge 
sentenced them to terms ranging from 20 years to six months.

"We're just good ol' country folk and we're not trying to do nobody 
no harm," a 22-year-old defendant said before the judge sentenced her 
to five years in prison.

Many defendants cited economic hardship and unemployment as the 
motive for becoming hands on the 275-acre marijuana farm. The 
defendants grew an estimated 48 tons of marijuana -- about 96,000 
plants worth an estimated $40 million -- interspersed with corn.

The group's leader, John Robert Boon, 44, of Springfield, Kentucky, 
received the largest sentence of 20 years. Federal prison records 
show he was released in 2002. Before being sentenced, Boone argued 
that 20 years was too much time for growing marijuana.

The story drew media attention from around the region. It was a 
compelling story of drugs, guns and rural America.

The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead ran an editorial a few days after the bust.

All in all, the marijuana processors made such a fuss about trying to 
stay invisible they became the talk of every bar and coffee shop in the region.

There are few secrets in rural Minnesota. It's no surprise the big 
illegal pot-processing venture, complete with unfriendly "farmers" 
and guard dogs, was exposed and destroyed. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake