Global Ganja Report

Barely a week goes by without a scandal involving a New Mexico law enforcement officer making the headlines in the state. Angelo Vega, the former police chief of the border town of Columbus, pleads guilty to extortion and trafficking arms destined for La Linea criminal organization, one of the protagonists in the so-called Mexican drug wars.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has issued an internal order to the New York City Police Department directing officers to stop making arresting for small quantities of marijuana, if the marijuana was never in public view. The directive, leaked to radio station WNYC, comes as the NYPD is under heat over alleged improper marijuana arrests.

California's Legislative Analyst's Office released a status report on Aug. 5 concluding that California is unlikely to meet the US Supreme Court's two-year deadline to reduce the state's prison population by 34,000 inmates. California's prisoner realignment plan, which entails shifting thousands of low-level offenders to county jails, could reduce the prison population by 32,000 inmates—still a few thousand inmates short of decreasing the 180% prison capacity to the mandated 137.5% capacity, by June 27, 2013.

Arrested last August in San Francisco for possessing marijuana, meth and child porn, Dennis Peron had his day in court Aug. 3, and scored a win when the DA dropped the case because the "burden of proof" was not "beyond a reasonable doubt." Peron immediately declared, "They dragged my name through the mud for a year. I'm going to sue [the San Francisco Police Department] for a million dollars. They soiled my name for no reason."

Park rangers announced the seizure in late July of more than 3,500 cannabis plants over a nine-acre swath in the heart of Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The National Park Service said the plots were scattered across an area near Zuma and Trancas canyons, south of Mulholland Highway. Earlier in the month, Ventura County Sheriff's officials announced the largest single seizure of cannabis plants in their jurisdiction, from an outdoor grow operation in the Pine Mountain area of Los Padres National Forest. The raid  in the rugged mountains north of Ojai netted 68,500 plants valued at $205.46 million, according to a sheriff's statement. No suspects were arrested. The season total for seized cannabis in Ventura County is over 100,000 plants. (Thousand Oaks Acorn, July 28; LAT, July 18; KEYT, Santa Barbara, July 15; LAT, July 14)

A massive, six-county cannabis eradication operation targeting Northern California's Mendocino National Forest is currently underway, with a multi-agency task force of hundreds of state, federal and county officers claiming seizures of some 292,000 plants and 77 arrests. "At this point, the operation is going as planned. We're making very good progress," said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. Raids are taking place simultaneously in Mendocino, Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, and Trinity counties, which all contain portions of the Mendocino National Forest.

Law enforcement agents in six Northern California counties are preparing for the largest series of cannabis raids yet conducted in the Emerald Triangle.  "Operation Full Court Press" will unleash hundreds of local, state and federal agents, first targeting the Mendocino National Forest, combing the mountains for illegal growers who authorities say have set up "huge plantations" deep in the woods, some reportedly numbering tens of thousands of plants. Law enforcement contends that many of the illegal growers are Mexican nationals who are linked to large drug-trafficking cartels. As evidence of a strong Mexico connection, prosecutors point to hundreds of Mexican nationals arrested in recent years at illegal outdoor grows in the Golden State. (California Watch, July 21)

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) reports that as of July 8, at least 6,600 prisoners in at least 11 of the state’s 33 prisons have joined the hunger strike initiated by some 400 inmates at the Pelican Bay facility on July 1. With large numbers of inmates striking at Corcoran, Folsom, Tehachapi, Centinela, Calpatria and San Quentin state prisons, advocates and lawyers working to support the strike claim the number is much higher, and are pressing the CDCR to enter into negotiations with prisoners at Pelican Bay and immediately implement their demands.