VLVL2(4)(ll) summer CAMP

[Vincent A. Maeder]

"Wait, easy pardner, now it sounds like CAMP," meaning the infamous
federal-state Campaign Against Marijuana Production, "but it ain't quite
the season yet."  (VL, Ch. 4, p. 49)

Guess Mr. Pynchon is, as normal, working with real facts here, as this
article attests: http://caag.state.ca.us/newsalerts/2001/01-120.htm
Seems California has had a bit of a CAMP program running since 1983
mostly in northern California using "an intense, collaborative approach
involving state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies" to weed
out the bad guys.

December 19, 2001 
01-120 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(SAN JOSE) - Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced that the 2001
California Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) seized 313,776
illegal marijuana plants worth approximately $1.25 billion.

Lockyer made the announcement in San Jose with California Highway Patrol
Commissioner Dwight "Spike" Helmick, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie
Smith and a representative for San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley to
recognize that in recent years, enormous marijuana operations have
become a statewide problem.

"In the last few years we have seen a major change in the way that
large, illegal marijuana operations are conducted in California,"
Lockyer said. "It's no longer grown mostly along the north coast in the
'Emerald Triangle,' but grown all over the state, anywhere there's
cover." 

CAMP uses an intense, collaborative approach involving state, federal,
and local law enforcement agencies working together under the direction
of the California Department of Justice to identify and eradicate large
outdoor marijuana operations during the height of the growing season. 

During the 2001 CAMP season, law enforcement officers from more than 70
local, state and federal agencies, under the supervision of the
California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement,
conducted 149 raids in 23 counties from late July through early October.
Officers seized 313,776 marijuana plants, worth an estimated $1.25
billion, made 20 arrests, and seized 19 weapons. More than 101,000, or
32 percent of the total number of plants were seized in Santa Clara, San
Mateo, Sonoma, and Napa counties. About 23 percent of all plants were
seized in the Central Valley, 22 percent were seized in Northern
California, and 16 percent were seized in the "Emerald Triangle"
counties of Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity. 

"We continue to find large operations in state and national forests or
other land available to the public, which presents a dangerous situation
for hikers, campers and others," said Lockyer. "Those hired to tend the
large gardens are often immigrant recruits living for weeks in modest
campsites who are armed and under orders to defend their illegal crop.
Our investigations indicate that about 70 percent of the plants seized
this year were from gardens operated by individuals with ties to Mexican
drug cartels that are also involved in the production and distribution
of methamphetamine and other narcotics."

Since 1983, CAMP teams have worked each year to locate, seize, and
eradicate large outdoor marijuana operations. More than 2.6 million
marijuana plants with an estimated wholesale value of $9.1 billion have
been seized since the program began, with more than 900,000 seized in
just the last three years. A summary of CAMP seizures in 2001 and a
statistical history of the program is attached.