[BCNnet] Fw: [fpfriends] from today's daily southtown

[Alan Anderson]

since a number of birders are familiar with Cap Sauer's Holdings I thought
I'd forward this on to BCNnet also.

Alan Anderson, casresearch@comcast.net , Des Plaines

----- Original Message -----
From: <Johngsheerin@aol.com>
To: <fpfriends@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 4:45 PM
Subject: [fpfriends] from today's daily southtown


> Note, well managed woodlands are burned and more open so this kind of
criminal activity is not prevalent.
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> Agents raze pot farm hidden in Palos woods
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> Thursday, September 18, 2003
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> By Jonathan Lipman
> Staff writer
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> Drug enforcement agents on Wednesday raided and burned a marijuana farm
with 6,200 5- and 12-foot-tall plants hidden in a forest preserve in Palos
Township.
> The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said the plants had a street value of up
to $37 million.
>
> The marijuana farm, split into seven carefully hidden gardens, was found a
few miles from the heart of Palos Park in the Cap Sauers Holding Forest
Preserve near 123rd Street and Wolf Road.
>
> "This is a lot of dope that's not going to be on the street," said Pete
Probst, special agent in charge of the DEA program spearheading the joint
investigation.
>
> Clad in combat fatigues, leaning on a polished brown cane and gesturing
with a freshly lit cigar, the 20-year DEA veteran said the farm was
undoubtedly a professional operation.
>
> "This is a pretty sophisticated field," he said. "These guys pretty much
knew what they were doing."
>
> The high-potency plants were cultivated to have a higher content of THC,
the drug that gives marijuana its effect, and would yield between one half
and one pound of marijuana each, DEA spokesman Gary Boertlein said. At that
yield, each plant was worth between $3,000 and $6,000.
>
> Overall, authorities estimate the farm held between $18.6 million and
$37.2 million in marijuana. Probst said it was one of the largest fields
found in his 10 years with the Domestic Cannabis Eradication and Suppression
Program.
>
> With helicopters from the DEA and the Illinois Army National Guard
whirring overhead, Probst explained that local marijuana operations like
this are becoming increasingly common.
>
> "If this was brought up from Mexico, they would lose over half their
profits just bringing it up here, plus they'd have to buy the pot down
there," Probst said. "This type of situation here? It's pure profit. ...
This wasn't going (onto the streets) anywhere but Chicago."
>
> The DEA, the Illinois State Police, the Cook County sheriff's police and
the Army National Guard have been watching the illegal marijuana farm since
spring, Boertlein said. The operators probably planned to harvest it within
two or three weeks, Probst said.
>
> It was discovered as part of an ongoing investigation that has so far
allowed investigators to destroy 20,000 plants at three different sites in
northeastern Illinois.
>
> Boertlein declined to release the exact location of the other farms but
said all were found on public land. Authorities moved to destroy the Palos
field Wednesday because it was a public safety hazard.
>
> "People are trying to use the forest preserve for innocent purposes, be it
hiking or bird watching," Boertlein said.
>
> No arrests have been made, Boertlein said, but authorities are pursuing
several leads.
>
> Cook County Forest Preserve officials said earlier this month that three
marijuana fields have been found on forest preserve property in the south
suburbs this year so far. But spokesman Steve Mayberry said those
discoveries were made solely by forest preserve police and were not part of
the ongoing DEA investigation.
>
> The fields in Cap Sauers Holding were specially cultivated for maximum
profit, Boertlein said. Only female plants were grown because they have more
THC.Probst estimated that eight to 10 workers entered the forest preserve
two or three days a week to care for the plants. Trash found at the site
indicates water and fertilizer was carried in by hand.
>
> The tall rows of plants were closely packed in about two dozen rows per
patch, and each had a mound of freshly tilled earth at its base.
>
> The farm was about a quarter-mile through dense woods from the nearest
trail through the forest preserve and was separated into seven gardens, each
about 50 yards square.
>
> Each garden was screened from casual inspection by a thick fence the
farmers built up from the branches of trees cut down to make room for the
marijuana. The farmers entered through narrow tunnels underneath the thickly
woven barriers, Boertlein said.
>
> "They do a little forestry project, ripping down a bunch of trees,
destroying the public land," Boertlein said. "They actually trailblaze in
here."
>
> The fences were so thick in some places that small cubbyholes had been
hollowed out underneath them to provide places for the farmers to sleep,
Probst said.
>
> Only by hacking through with machetes were law enforcement officers able
to bring in the power tools and diesel fuel needed to burn the plants
Wednesday.
>
> The gardens were hidden well enough that authorities were only able to
find them once they started the raid and helicopters could conduct a
thorough search by air.
>
> Much of the marijuana sold in America is grown in Mexico and Colombia, but
distributors are turning more to local sources as the Mexican border
tightens in a post-Sept. 11 world, Probst said.
>
> Inside the United States, professional farm operations are more common in
the South, Probst said. The longer growing season and sparsely populated
areas make it easier and more profitable then it is here.
>
> Growing drugs on public land is becoming more common in this area, Probst
said.
>
> "They know that if we catch them on their own lands, we can take it away
from them," he said.
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> "Here they have nothing to lose."
>
> Jonathan Lipman may be reached at jlipman@dailysouthtown.com or (708)
633-5979.
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