j-ray

Ok, seeing as GanjaWarrior isn't actually allowed to tell us what to make of what the LEO's CAN see, then can anybody analyze what he said and tell us what we can do, based on GanjaWarrior's post?

Ganja Warrior

j-ray,

The color of marijuana is very distinct. It is easily spotted from the air. A well trained spotter can spot it no matter what is is camouflaged with, if it can be seen. What has made it very difficult to spot is when our eyes are distracted or refocused without us being aware of it occurring. We can see past the pine trees, the manzanita bushes, the scrub oaks, but if we are looking past the foliage and seeing a camo net, and NOT REALIZING IT IS A CAMO NET, we fly by and prolly never come back. If the camo is poorly done, we see the camo net for what it is and come back to investigate.

I found a garden several years ago that had been in operation for over 5 years! It was in an area we work heavily, but had missed it year after year. From the air I saw only several plants and we scheduled the garden for eradication only as it appeared to be a small operation. When we got into the site, we found several gardens connected by trails and water lines, containing over 500 plants. We found that the growers had limbed the bushes leaving only the top foliage. They had taken Army surplus camo netting and strung it up under the top foliage of the manzanita bushes and had a growing area up to 8 feet tall under the nets with good foliage cover over the nets. Over the years one of the cords holding a corner had rotted allowing the corner to blow back. From the air, I saw two groups of plants, about 6 altogether.

In yet another instance, we were flying along having a good ole time, when I saw something that looked outta place. We came back around and there was an easily recognizable camo net strung up between the trees. We went in on the ground and found a camp site connected to several small MJ gardens.

superOz

Yes the choppers are around in summer but do they search all the time in all the seasons of the year ? It wouldn't be a viable
propostion would it ,for government expenditure etc etc
That was for the GW...........and I did PM you ,did you receive it ?................regards superOz

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ommamedmar

Perhaps you could shed some light on this:

About ten years ago, a neighbor was raided due to some evidence gathered from one of the chopper patrols; He was in fact, growing nothing, and wasn't as a result, charged with anything.

The false positive came from a dense outcropping of a common annual called "Jerusalem artichoke" It is so common, it grows on the sides of highways out here.

My guess is that this raid corresponds to the period of time in which you were describing the experimental use of IR moisture scanning; I was also tipped off by your references to the Manzanita canopy - a common tactic here - and an indicator of our possible proximity. Did you hear about this raid? Did false positives such as this one discourage further use of this technology?

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silvasofa

A query for Hempster - I have been looking into the issue of Thermal Imaging detection for a little while, but the second image would seem (other than the overall hgh temp - about 85F right?) not too indicative as almost the whole house is a uniform temperature ? You probably know more about this than I do, so why is this a suspicious house ? And also why doesn the garage door not also heat up to anything like similar temperatue in the shot ? I have a 6ftx6ftx10ft cublcile skinned in polythene and Mylar film inside to reflect well with cool air blowing in and extraction out to under the building but its a good 8 ft from any outside wall and 10ft from the roof.

Now as I understand it, if you have two cases of a house that has an overall temperature say of 70 degrees, Provided that the heat source in one of them is not right under the roof and hence creating a far hotter area in one portion of the roof for example, if instead like my setup, the cubicle inside the room (so room within a room almost) was well ventilated and you prevented a hot colunm of air rising from it directly upwards thus creating a differentially hotter spot on the roof above and thus overall the house was equally 70 degrees, I don't see how the feds could make any case of this as opposed to Joe Public who just likes his house quite warm all over ? I Was under the impression that they could only really spot a growroom where they could see such contrasts of hot/cold indicitive of a sodium lamp whch would have to be stuck right benath or next to an outer surface/wall/roof and hence they can conclude that such a heat source of that size MUST be a high powered light as it's not a usual thing to see in a domesic situation ? Am I wrong in this assumption ? Any advice much appreciated as usual!

Hempster

The second picture shows the temperature to be around 90 degrees (red) and (white) over a 100 degrees, the green and yellow areas are 60 to 70 degrees. That is what made that area stand out beyond the rest of the house; it was way to warm in that part of the house based on the outside temperature. As far as the garage is concerned, it was probably empty (no hot car, etc.) and was cooler. This was done with a handheld infrared thermal camera, not a helicopter. These pictures show what a grow room of thousands of watts going, not a single 400w hid, etc. House's that are radiating unusually high levels of heat. The government claims that the imaging device reveals nothing about what is going on in the house. If there is a heat pattern associated with cultivating marijuana, then it is worth asking whether there are heat patterns associated with legal activities, too.

Ganja Warrior

superOz, Planting an MJ plant every 5th plant or so in a produce garden does not camouflage it from the air. The color and shape of the plant still gives it away.

Greenhouses are very effective if we can't see thru the top, sides etc. Every year I see green houses that show enough color that I "know" what's growing inside but I can't swear to it in a search warrant affidavit. If it's big enough, or if it's on the property of folks we really badly want to "get," then we do ground based investigations to try and develope PC to get a warrant. If it's small and no one of note, we fly on by and look for work elsewhere.

wantfreshnuggz

Hey ganja warrior. Somebody told me that if you got busted with 3 plants in your closet in the basement of your parents house but in your room of course that even if the cops knew your parents were ignorant of you having plants that the parents can get in trouble. We're assuming the grower is above the age of 21 and like I mentioned lives in privacy in the basement where his parents never go. Never go in the "growers" room that is. What are your thoughts. This is concerning the state MO if it helps.

Ganja Warrior

There' a difference between getting in trouble and making it stick. Some things the cops would look at are: 1)should reasonable people have been aware. They would base that on power bills, odors, the residue of the growing operation (fert bags, etc); 2) Is the person paying rent, and is the room totally off limits (does their Mom go in to get their laundry, etc).

In most circumstances the cops would make it rough on the parents in hopes of pressuring the suspect to make a plea agreement to spare their parents the pain and spare the plice from having to go thru lenghty court battles.