Buzzby

Marijuana Growing In Olympics?
Steven J. Barry | Port Townsend Leader | date

Law enforcement officials throughout the region say they believe that large marijuana plantations – some of which could be manned by armed guards stocked with food and ammunition caches – might be creeping into the Olympic National Forest.

At this point, that is still only a hypothesis based on what officials already know about growing trends statewide.

Still, Jefferson County Undersheriff Tim Perry said they are confident it is there.

"They're growing it," Perry said.

But now, the inter-agency task force that would investigate that hypothesis, the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team (OPNET), has suffered a major funding cut that calls into question the organization's ability to continue operating after next year.

OPNET, which includes law enforcement agencies in both Jefferson and Clallam counties, has been funded for years by a federal grant for local law enforcement called the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant. Congress recently voted to cut the grant by about 40 percent in 2006.

(BuzzNote: And no wonder! All they're doing is speculating about what might be happening.)

That means OPNET will see just 10 percent of the money it normally gets from that source – a reduction of about $160,000. The loss brings its budget for next year to roughly a third of its previous amount.

"Though we may be able to work through this year, it's difficult to say what's going to happen on the other end with the loss of funding," OPNET Commander Ron Cameron said.

The Port Angeles-based organization, which includes the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, has already been forced to release a criminal analyst who had been responsible for evaluating call-in tips and information from patrol officers. A detective from the Washington State Patrol might also have to be cut.

OPNET Policy Board Chairman Tom Riepe, chief of the Port Angeles Police Department, said revenue from assets recently seized from drug dealers will keep OPNET going for the short term. He said the policy board meets May 31 to discuss the organization's future.

"When we have reduced funding, we're going to have to reduce operations," Riepe said. "The funding cuts have had an impact, no question."

He said the board is committed to keeping the task force alive.

(BuzzNote: Because their salaries depend on it?)

Flyovers necessary

Because of the techniques growers use to make their plantations nearly inaccessible from the ground, the only effective way to find them is by conducting flyovers with helicopters, which is a costly maneuver.

Perry said resources to conduct flyovers – including Army National Guard helicopters – are already being strained by the hunt for growing operations in Eastern Washington.

While the thick forest canopy of the Olympics would make it difficult, WSP narcotics officials say marijuana plants are normally in rows and they must get direct sunlight, meaning they can be spotted from the sky.

"I think it would be naive not to fly that area. It has to be done," said Randy Drake, a WSP narcotics detective who has helped conduct eradication operations and flyovers in Jefferson, Kitsap and Mason counties.

While Drake did not have specific information regarding plantations in the Olympics, he did say detectives are "anticipating that these gardens are going to come this way."

Drake said major growing operations on public lands, managed by Hispanic drug cartels, have been working their way through California and Oregon.

"These are significant operations and they're very organized and sophisticated," Drake said.

Cameron declined to say how much information OPNET had regarding particular growing sites.

He agreed that large plantations in the Olympics are a possibility, but Cameron said he was aware of only one seizure of a small plot of about 40 plants on national forest lands four years ago.

However, he pointed to the seizure of more than $25 million worth of plants last summer in Chelan County as evidence that anything is possible.

"Before that one last summer was discovered, there had never been anything of that size in this state," Cameron said. "There's a first time for everything."

Riepe said the loss of Byrne Grant money could have a decidedly negative impact in the long-term for OPNET, but he said it's too early to say whether flyovers will still be possible.

Feel the pinch

Paul Perz of the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development sat on the board that had to decide the size of the budget cuts inter-agency task forces across the state would suffer as a result of the loss of Byrne Grant funds.

Perz said a 20-person review panel looked at the task forces' performance and cohesion as well as crime trends in the regions they serve. In an attempt to take some of the sting out of the process, they then gave task forces the option of requesting either $20,000, $60,000 or the same amount they received this year.

All but two requested the same amount. OPNET was among eight to receive just $20,000.

"We get calls from local police departments asking if there are any other resources we have that we could give, and quite frankly there aren't," Perz, the managing director of Safe and Drug-Free Communities, said.

Perz said the money that would have gone to the Byrne Grant was instead given to the Department of Homeland Security, which, ironically, could threaten homeland security here.

Perz said that the cuts would make it easier for cartels to set up operations here, since police will now be forced to focus on street drug-dealers rather than regional kingpins.

"Multi-jurisdictional task forces that we have in this state, I think, are critical links in homeland security," he said. "We already have a system in place where law enforcement agencies are working well together. What we're doing, in effect, is taking them apart."

"With fewer dollars, I think we'll probably see more trafficking through the state," Perz said.

He added that crystal methamphetamine produced abroad continues to be more prevalent throughout Washington state.

"The meth problem is exploding, and now we're taking apart the infrastructure to address that," he said.

Perz speculated that OPNET would probably not survive the cut. (BuzzNote: )

"For OPNET, the Byrne grant was the foundation – the seed money – to get that task force together," Perz said.

(BuzzNote: When I saw the headline my immediate thought was, "Wow! What a great idea. Competitive pot growing in the Olympics!")

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