{"id":587838,"date":"2021-07-10T14:06:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T18:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=587838"},"modified":"2021-07-10T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T18:06:17","slug":"l-a-sheriff-says-drug-cartels-took-over-large-tracts-of-the-desert-during-pandemic-to-grow-illegal-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/l-a-sheriff-says-drug-cartels-took-over-large-tracts-of-the-desert-during-pandemic-to-grow-illegal-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Sheriff Says Drug Cartels Took Over Large Tracts Of The Desert During Pandemic To Grow Illegal Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">36<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fl-a-sheriff-says-drug-cartels-took-over-large-tracts-of-the-desert-during-pandemic-to-grow-illegal-pot%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=587838&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Sheriff.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva appeared on Fox &amp; Friends Weekend early Saturday morning to discuss his goal of eliminating illegal marijuana farms operated by drug cartels that set up shop in the desert during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Even though recreational cannabis sales became legal in California in 2018, high taxes and strict regulations have resulted in a thriving black market.<\/p>\n<p>Villanueva announced earlier this week that law enforcement had seized more than 16 tons of illegal pot during a 10-day operation that had an estimated street value of nearly $1.2 billion. The effort targeted the Antelope Valley in northern L.A. County, which is part of the Mojave Desert. During a press conference on Wednesday, the sheriff said he wanted to \u201csend a clear message to the cartels and anyone doing illegal operations in the High Desert: your days are over, and we are coming for you.\u201d He also said Asian and Armenian organized crime rings were involved in unlawful harvests in that area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the pandemic year, we counted 150 of these illegal grows in the High Desert, but now in 2021, we did another survey, that number grew to 500,\u201d Villanueva told Fox News. \u201cThe cartels moved in during the pandemic and had basically taken over large tracts of the desert floor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Villanueva said authorities targeted 40% of the illegal grows during the recent operation, which he called a \u201cdown payment\u201d of the \u201cbig goal\u201d to&nbsp; \u201celiminate the cartel operations in the High Desert area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese illegals grows, obviously there\u2019s no taxation involved, there\u2019s no regulation, they take over open public lands, they steal the water from the local farmers, and they use all of the heavy pesticides and fertilizers which goes right into the ground and actually destroys the aquifer for the High Desert and the residential communities,\u201d Villanueva explained. \u201cSo this is a major existential threat for the communities, so we\u2019re doing our best to knock this out once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fox &amp; Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth asked Villanueva whether illegal operations have \u201cramped up massively\u201d because \u201cour borders are perceived to be open\u201d due to softer policies from the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<p>Partial transcript as follows:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"29\">\n<p><em>VILLANUEVA: Whatever is going on at the border, we\u2019re getting a steady supply of people based on human trafficking that are out there in the desert. And they\u2019re the workers, the peons. They\u2019re the ones that, they showed up a week later out there in the middle of nowhere tending to a farm, and a guy comes by, throws some cash at them once a month, and sadly, that\u2019s the sad reality of this entire human trafficking thing. A lot of these people are indentured servants to the cartels, so they are almost as much of a victim as the community.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>HEGSETH: So the cartel traffics them across, makes them work there, and they\u2019re effectively indentured servants maybe sending money back home, whatever that may be, and ultimately drug is their product. Can you eradicate this, sheriff?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>VILLANUEVA: We can eradicate what we can see in the High Desert, and we are well on our way to doing that. Our only limitation is just the sheer resources. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Villanueva, a Democrat, told Fox News that federal agencies \u201care pitching in, but apparently, there\u2019s a rule that says that the DEA can only reimburse local law enforcement $19,000 a year in overtime, and this [operation] obviously dwarfs that, so we need to change that regulation so we can raise the bar.\u201d He said other local agencies from neighboring counties have been working with the Sheriff\u2019s Department, while state officials and DEA agents also assisted in the recent billion-dollar bust.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/authorities-seize-more-than-1-billion-worth-of-illegal-pot-in-the-desert\">Authorities Seize More Than $1 Billion Worth Of Illegal Pot In The Desert<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/l-a-sheriff-calls-progressives-in-charge-of-l-a-s-homeless-policies-the-architects-of-failure\">L.A. Sheriff Calls Progressives In Charge Of L.A.\u2019s Homeless Policies \u2018The Architects of Failure\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/l-a-sheriff-says-paid-activists-are-behind-opposition-to-cleaning-up-homeless-encampments\">L.A. Sheriff Says \u2018Paid Activists\u2019 Are Behind Opposition To Cleaning Up Homeless Encampments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/l-a-sheriff-calls-progressive-activists-white-millionaires-who-live-in-mansions-they-accuse-him-of-being-in-a-secret-hispanic-gang\">L.A. Sheriff Calls Progressive Activists \u2018White Millionaires\u2019 Who Live In \u2018Mansions\u2019; They Accuse Him Of Being In A Secret Hispanic Gang<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva appeared on Fox &#038; Friends Weekend early Saturday morning to discuss his goal of eliminating illegal marijuana farms operated by drug cartels that set &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314409,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Sheriff.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"L.A. Sheriff Says Drug Cartels Took Over Large Tracts Of The Desert During Pandemic To Grow Illegal Pot","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-587838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Sheriff.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"L.A. Sheriff Says Drug Cartels Took Over Large Tracts Of The Desert During Pandemic To Grow Illegal Pot","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}