Pubdate: Sun, 27 Jul 2008
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2008 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Martha Quillin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

LAW ENFORCEMENT FORCES POT INDOORS

Officers using aircraft work to adjust to the changing tactics of 
marijuana growers. From April to October, while N.C. farmers are 
planting, tending and harvesting their crops, hundreds of law 
enforcement officers engage in the annual ritual of weed-pulling.

The Marijuana Eradication Program is a joint effort that uses federal 
funds, state-owned aircraft and county sheriff's officers to find and 
destroy marijuana plants. After more than three decades, 
investigators say, the program has helped bring about a change in the 
industry: Local growers have begun to move their operations indoors, 
hidden from aerial spotters, leaving only tiny plots for pilots to 
search for in the verdant landscape. When spotters do find a large 
crop, usually divided into parcels over several acres where the 
landowners are unaware of their presence, investigators think the 
plants are often being tended as part of an organized criminal effort.

"The trend has been toward smaller patches and better concealment, 
and there's a tremendous trend toward indoor growing," said Durb 
Turner, special agent in charge of the air wing of North Carolina's 
State Bureau of Investigation.

Pilots for the SBI, the N.C. Highway Patrol and the N.C. National 
Guard try to fly in each of the state's 100 counties at least once 
during the growing season. Marine Patrol aircraft also help. They 
scan places where investigators have found pot in the past, and those 
where their detective work suggests it might be growing now. It's an 
old-fashioned form of sleuthing that works best against a low-tech 
criminal. "The easiest time to find it is when they first set the 
seedlings out in the spring," said Franklin County Sheriff's 
Detective William Mitchell, one of many local narcotics officers who 
have attended a state-sponsored "spotters school." "(Growers) just go 
out and clear a space and put the seedlings in the ground," Mitchell 
said. "All you got to do is go up and look for the dots." It's a bit 
more challenging in late July, when the trees are full, milkweed is 
as tall as a house and a marijuana plant blends more easily with 
surrounding foliage.

Thirty years ago, Turner says, the biggest plots were usually planted 
by local growers. Some of those growers aged out of the business or 
just got tired of worrying they might get caught and lose their 
investment, Turner says. Some still raise a few plants, scattered 
from place to place over a broad area.

They have been followed, Turner thinks, by growers who have moved 
their production indoors, setting up elaborate greenhouse systems 
where high-quality plants can be raised year-round.

Investigators say those are more difficult to find. When plants are 
spotted outside on private property, law officers can move in 
immediately. But to raid a house, a search warrant is needed, and 
it's more difficult to establish the probable cause a judge or 
magistrate would require. After news of a big Harnett County bust 
traveled across the country, Sheriff Larry Rollins says, he was 
inundated with calls and e-mail from people questioning the value of 
putting so many resources to work on investigations that rarely 
result in arrests. When charges are made, they are usually for 
manufacturing or trafficking marijuana. Even then, police say, the 
courts treat the charges lightly.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom