hydrolized

I did a search for "marijuana bust" and "pot grow bust" the other day out of curiosity, and found an alarming amount of articles relating to recent busts all around the country. Some of them were news stories on YouTube, so I did search within YouTube and found many more videos of news stories, all very recent, within the last few months. Anyone notice anything going on that all here should be worried about? New tactics by LEO?

A lot of the grow rooms in the videos were not the normal few plants in a bucket of dirt under a flouro you see on COPS type shows...these were ranging from the nice little 400w-1000w setups most people on here have, to serious kW flip flopped hydro/hempy CAN150 filter operations...a lot of the things I witnessed in the videos were things people ask for tips on all the time here in here (ventilation, hydro setup etc)..and it was all done right...makes me wonder if the grows were any of ours on here .

The biggest thing I noticed in all of the news stories that REALLY bugs me (even though I don't grow myself) is that out of the 5 or 6 news videos I watched, when the reporter asked the LEO how they person was caught, they refused to comment. Usually the LEO will always say it was because of the smell, the noise, light leaks (all of which boil down to nosy, narc neighbors), or they will say they got an anonymous tip. All of these recent ones they wouldn't comment on how. Anyone getting any ideas? Power companies starting to cooperate? LEO infiltrating grow shops/online stores and getting tips? Those reasons would require them to not give up the source to keep the info line open...

Kind of has me worried for the growers. Anyone with law experience out there? If we had the basic information about the cases in the videos like names and addresses of the defendants, couldn't we get copies of the search warrants and all court proceedings and find out what exactly led to the busts, even if the LEO wouldn't comment? Not really trying to make a big deal, but just like the LEO learn from the newest stealth methods of growers, people here would benefit by knowing how LEO caught the growers they busted. Part of me wants to think all of the busts were just because of the loose lips sink ships deal, but another part of me thinks that due to the amount of them, and the fact they were all unrelated and in all different states and all within the last few months, it is something bigger, like power companies, or even a turned grow shop, or maybe a certain bank flagging purchases now....

Call me paranoid since I don't grow myself, but I enjoy the aspect of it and helping other people here with the technical side of things, but it still worries me the same.

In regards to finding out how they were caught, I see the other huge problem in the justice system (for growers, anyways)...the anonymous tip. I used to think in every state, there was a provision that prevented LEO from acting from one erroneous tip, like they needed a minimum of 2 or three separate tips, or pictures or a very credible tip (like from a person living in the house) but come to find out, they can get warrants from just one anonymous tip. The big problem I see with this, is that the police can (and I'm sure DO) discover your grow by illegal means (phone tapping, hacking grow shop records, CC statements, spying in general, illegal search while your away), and after they are sure they've got something (illegally) they just have on of there civilian buddies call in "anonymously" and BAM, they can now gather all of there evidence first gathered illegally, in a legal manner, and your busted.

Anyone else share any of these thoughts/opinions?

Luke Highwalker

its a brave new world we live in.

all the digital communication...nothing is sacred anymore.

everything we do is tagged to be tracked now or later...just in case.

ever noticed how everything wireless these days has an embedded camera? wonder why that is.

someone is watching, all the time. if you for whatever reason stand out enough to warrant further scrutiny... well your fucked.

is it dumb luck? cops spying? the digital age? the internet?.....in short. yes.

everything you do that increases your footprint as a grower increases your chance of getting busted.

hydro shops, loose lips, internet purchases, credit statements, phone records, camera phones, photobucket.

we ALL know these are the places to look for anything mj related, why does everyone assume the cops cant/wont?

lack of resources? its the cops JOB to find and bust us. they have nothing but time. your only real safety lay in numbers. there are more growers than cops....hopefully.

someday, that will probably change and weed will be but a distant memory, hell the U.N. proposed to have it eradicated from the face of the earth by next year..

__________________


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komet

More interconnected world where busts are more visible to the grower. However, I am one of these people who is far less concerned about cops ripping GPS coordinates from .exif data or ISP info than the gentle whiff emanating from my basement.

Or, "Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts" - William Burroughs

Silentsmoke

No sell no tell no smell.

slowthestone

As in, since 1995?

hydrolized

as in the last few months, there were a few from Jan adn Feb and a whole bunch from March and one already this month.

I think komet has a point...maybe I'm just looking harder and finding more stories...but I remember searching for stuff like that a year ago and I would find maybe two or three old stories or just the huge 10-20 kW grows but now I'm finding a bunch of little grows like people on here have getting busted left and right with LEO not wanting to say how....just bugged me I suppose.