Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jul 2015
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Contact:  2015 Associated Press
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321

POT PLANTS SEIZED FROM TRIBAL LANDS

ALTURAS (AP) - Federal agents seized at least 12,000 marijuana plants 
on Wednesday from land in far Northern California that belongs to two 
federally recognized Indian tribes, the U.S. Attorney's Office in 
Sacramento said.

The plants and over 100 pounds of processed pot were found while the 
agents were carrying out search warrants for the properties governed 
by the Alturas Indian Rancheria and Pit River tribes in Modoc County, 
Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, said.

An application in support of the search signed by an agent for the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs alleges that the chairman and vice chairman 
of the Alturas Rancheria, a tiny tribe with just five members and 20 
acres of land, told Modoc County's sheriff in March that they planned 
to start growing medical marijuana near a casino the tribe operates. 
Pot is only legal for medical purposes in California.

The Department of Justice announced in December that Indian tribes 
may grow and sell marijuana if they follow the same public safety and 
non-diversion policies required of states that have legalized the 
drug for medical or recreational use. Since then, some of the 
nation's 566 recognized tribes have been weighing the potential 
economic benefits of getting into the cannabis business.

But the amount of marijuana that was being cultivated inside the 
Alturas Rancheria Event Center and in at least 40 greenhouses on Pit 
River tribe land nearby suggested that neither the federal conditions 
nor the terms of California's medical marijuana laws were being met, 
according to federal prosecutors and the agent's affidavit.

"The investigation of the cultivation facilities searched today 
indicates that both are commercial marijuana cultivation projects 
operated with the intent to transport large quantities of marijuana 
off tribal lands for distribution at various locations yet to be 
identified by the tribes," Wagner's office said in a statement.

No one has been arrested, and no charges are pending in the case, 
which still is under investigation, Horwood said.

John Peebles, a Sacramento lawyer who specializes in tribal 
sovereignty and was identified in the affidavit as having presented 
the original cultivation proposal to the sheriff and Modoc County 
lawmakers, did not respond to a telephone call and email seeking 
comment. The leaders whom the Bureau of Indian Affairs lists as the 
chairmen of the two tribes also could not be reached.

The agent's search warrant application alleges that the project was 
being financed by Grand River Enterprises chief executive officer, 
Jerry Montour, a native Mohawk and prominent cigarette manufacturer 
in Canada who has tangled with federal and state authorities in the 
U.S. over sales of his products on this side of the border.

Montour's business voice mail was not accepting messages on Tuesday 
and a call to a lawyer who has represented him was not returned.

Federal authorities were asked to investigate the marijuana growing 
project by the sister of the Alturas Rancheria chairman, according to 
the agent's affidavit.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom