Josephine County

Cartel-backed pot grows linked to human trafficking, inhumane working conditions
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Cartel-backed pot grows linked to human trafficking, inhumane working conditions

Editor’s note: I just returned from northern California (6/2023), speaking with experts with ties into the situation with legal growers. Human trafficking is happening in legal and illegal cannabis farms.  TRINITY COUNTY, Calif. — If you buy weed illegally, you unwittingly could be supporting Mexican cartels and other criminal syndicates that lure workers to farms…

'Real People That We Care About Are Being Exploited' – POLITICO
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'Real People That We Care About Are Being Exploited' – POLITICO

MEDFORD, ORE. — Early on a warm August morning in 2021 — as helicopters and drones hovered overhead — three women huddled under a sheet of plastic in a southern Oregon greenhouse. Outside, state, federal and county law enforcement were raiding the massive unlicensed cannabis farm where the women had worked for two months. Officers…

Team raids Applegate Valley pot operation – Yahoo
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Team raids Applegate Valley pot operation – Yahoo

Sep. 2—A law enforcement team that raided an illegal marijuana grow in the Applegate Valley found an abandoned horse plus evidence that workers there may have been victims of forced labor trafficking, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said. A SWAT unit helped with the raid because of an elevated threat from the operation’s connection to…

Task Force Busts Drug Trafficking Organization Marijuana Grow, Destroys 149k Lbs
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Task Force Busts Drug Trafficking Organization Marijuana Grow, Destroys 149k Lbs

IMET Case 22-14567 RURAL JACKSONVILLE, Ore. – Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) SWAT team responded to a black-market cannabis growing and processing facility early Wednesday morning to assist Illegal Marijuana Enforcement Team (IMET) detectives in serving a search warrant. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) assisted due to concerns of forced labor trafficking and substandard living conditions….