Global Ganja Report

Last month, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla AKA "El Mayito"—the son of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael Zambada AKA "El Mayo"—filed pleadings in a Chicago federal court accusing the US Justice Department of giving the cartel "carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States." Zambada's pleadings claim that protection included promises to be kept apprised of US and Mexican government investigations close to the "home territories" of cartel leaders so they "could take appropriate actions to evade investigators"—even as the US had indictments, extradition requests, and rewards for the apprehension of the top Sinaloa Cartel leadership.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced Aug. 11 that six suspects—five Mexican nationals and one US citizen—were arrested in connection with a large-scale cannabis cultivation operation in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Officers from federal, state and local enforcement agencies eradicated some 10,000 plants over several acres about 25 miles northwest of Park Falls. Law enforcement was alerted by a hunter’s tip last November. About 175 agents were involved in the operation, which uncovered the crops and a campsite used by the growers, where loaded firearms were reportedly found. Ashland County residents have been warned not to pick up hitchhikers as agents continue to search for four suspects.

On Aug. 9, the Board of Supervisors in California's Kern County passed an ordinance that bans medical marijuana cooperatives. But advocates have already launched a referendum drive to stop the ordinance. "We want to see an ordinance that works for everybody," said Craig Beresh, president of the California Cannabis Coalition. "That regulates it, gets taxed and is beneficial for Kern County as well as the collectives." Professional signature collectors are headed to Kern County to drum up more than 17,000 names needed before the ordinance goes into effect Sept. 9. (KGT, Bakersfield, Aug. 11)

Superior Court Judge Paul Vortmann in California's Tulare County ruled Aug. 11 that a cannabis collective cannot operate on land zoned for agriculture, dismissing a property owner's arguments. "In this state, marijuana has never been classified as a crop or horticultural product," Vortmann wrote. Cannabis is a controlled substance, the ruling stated, adding that "the court finds as a matter of law that growing marijuana...is not an agricultural use of property."

Police in Mexico City announced the arrest of Óscar Osvaldo García Montoya, AKA "El Compayito" on Aug. 11—accused leader of "La Mano con Ojos" (Hand with Eyes) criminal organization, accused in some 900 killings. The raid was carried out by police from the Federal District and México state, with intelligence provided by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR).

The head of Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, is to make an emergency visit to a remote Amazon outpost amid fears that members of an isolated tribe may have been "massacred" by drug traffickers. The move comes after a guard post protecting the "uncontacted" people was overrun by heavily-armed men, believed to be drug-traffickers from neighboring Peru. The post was ransacked and equipment destroyed.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on Aug. 8 asked a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to shut down three unlicensed Phoenix-area medical marijuana establishments that he said illegally charge fees to provide patients with cannabis. Horne said in a press release that the clubs "falsely claim to be operating lawfully under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act."

Federal prosecutors in Dayton are wrapping up a case against 11 immigrant men charged with cultivating thousands of cannabis plants. All have pleaded guilty and seven have received sentences ranging from a year to 18 months in prison. When the arrests were announced in the fall, state Attorney General Richard Cordray said the case was further evidence of what he called "cartel-sponsored mega-marijuana farms taking root in Ohio." But defense attorneys say the defendants were poor day laborers trying to earn money for their families with no idea about what they were being hired to do.