Smoky,
Yeah, we do bust them sometimes, but only if the grow is a big one. The record garden was over 78,000 plants. Acutally there were about 110,000 but since they were in several gardens that were discovered over a period of days, CAMP credited the "big one" as the record.
Normally, when we fly we start looking near the stream beds since the plants need alot of water. If your site is easlily accessable, and if the locals don't have much else to do, you could get a rather nasty surprise, even for 8 to 10 plants. Normally, we just eradicate a grow that small, but if you're in an area that does get much cultivation activity, and with in increased activity looking for the big Hispanic grows, the locals may just decide to invest the time in your demise, so to speak.
If we find water systems on timers, the grow is not that big, and there is no regular pattern of visits to the site, we may set up a camera, or spend a set time like three days, and then eradicate.
We have found in gardens where we are unsuccessful in arresting the growers that they have some form of detection to tell if anyone other than them has visited the area. In the past these have been everything from branches or twigs place on the trail in such a manner that if you don't know they are there you will disturb them to items that will attract the cops attention such as notebooks, etc., that are placed in such a manner that will show if they have been handled. When they are a distance from the grow, the growers have a good idea if anyone has been in their site without actually going into it. But still, it can be a "crap shoot" and we do catch some of the sneaky ones. |