Blog del Narco: Marijuana Plantation Discovered in Texas at Border

Raymondville, Texas.-In a land that was once used to grow watermelons and beans, marijuana plants 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall swaying under the foliage . PVC pipe and a pump divert water diverted from the channel to place it carefully along the furrows of rows 60 feet (18.2 meters) long. Two acres of meticulously cultivated marijuana plants extend the 25 miles (40.2 kilometers) to the border . It is the US side of the border that is home to tons of marijuana. Large farming operations are routinely found inside the United States. Authorities dismantled a very large one in the forest about 70 miles ( 112.6 kilometers) northeast of Houston last month with about 100 thousand plants confiscated.  “I have never seen anything like it,” said Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence. “I’ve seen that many people prefer to grow a small plot in their bushes on their patios or some place close to their homes, where they grow just a little marijuana. But lately their appears to be quite extensive large operations. ”

Last year, the Internal Cannabis Program in Texas, in which local and federal law enforcement agencies participated, was responsible for the eradication of 277 marijuana plants cultivated outdoors in 24 different seizures, according to the Department of Public Safety. The quality of the irrigation system impressed the authorities, including Mark Dawson, Special Agent Homeland Security Investigations ( HSI), by the area of Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley, who said he had never encountered anything like it in his 17 year career. “I think we should not be surprise by how well planned it is, considering that is the Rio Grande Valley and the people who live in that area are experts in creating irrigation systems to grow fruits and vegetables in general, “Dawson said. Service Enforcement Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is leading the investigation, Dawson said it is too early to know why this location was selected. Nobody has yet been charged in the marijuana growing operation. This police action was somewhat a fluke. Nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) of paved, in an old dairy farm, the operating path was hidden in through an intensive agricultural complex. A well maintained extended orange grove next to the dirt road, while some horses grazed nearby.

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Published in Latino Daily News