VILLAGE ON DRUG-WAR FRONT

Mexican Cartels Turn to Rural Ohio for Marijuana Operations

LATHAM, Ohio -- At Thelma Jean's diner, patrons can pour their own cups
of coffee before taking a seat under the faded photographs of the
town's military service members lining the red-white-and-blue wallpaper.

The restaurant is one of a handful of houses and businesses clinging
to the sides of two-lane Rt. 124 as it wends through western Pike
County, about 65 miles south of Columbus. Yet this sleepy village is
on the front lines of the state's effort to combat the encroachment of
Mexican drug cartels that are increasingly using rural Ohio as
cropland for large, outdoor marijuana operations.

Local and state law officers descended on this hillside community on
Aug. 20 to stamp out one of the largest growing operations in state
history. They found about 22,000 plants atop two wooded hilltops a few
miles from the village. The find was so large that authorities chose
to cut and burn the plants where they grew instead of trying to
transport them as evidence. The operation took more than a day.

"I saw the helicopters circling ... then a bunch of trucks came through
town carrying four-wheelers," said Thelma Jean's owner, Ron Moore.
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It was not the first time authorities have found marijuana growing on
the wooded hillsides or in cornfields around Latham, but other
discoveries were nothing like the amount uncovered in the most recent
bust.

Moore said locals had noticed a few Latino men frequenting the town's
sole gas station in recent months but didn't think much of it until
they heard about the eradication effort. Authorities say the owners of
the property where the plants were found knew nothing about what was
happening on their land until state agents arrived.

That's a familiar story to Scott Duff, special agent supervisor for
the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
Mexican drug traffickers are becoming increasingly brazen in their
quest to stockpile high-quality, domestically grown marijuana, he said.

The crops typically are maintained by groups of workers living in
camps among the marijuana plants who are supplied and supervised by
the cartel. The first such operation found in the state was discovered
three years ago in a state wildlife area in northern Pickaway County.

State agents and county sheriffs have uncovered more than 40,000
plants this month alone, almost as many as in all of last year. Duff
expects those numbers to grow in coming years.

The Pike County site featured two large camps and four or five smaller
camps spread out among several acres. The formerly heavily wooded area
had been clear-cut several years ago, allowing ample light for the
plants.

Duff said it was the first time a large-scale operation was discovered
that far south in Ohio. The combination of wooded, hilly terrain and
good climate -- and the fact that most rural sheriffs' offices are
short on staffing -- makes southern Ohio ripe for more clandestine farms.

"There's no question that these are sophisticated operations," Duff
said. "They're doing their homework when picking these places."

Although the growing operations are becoming larger and more
sophisticated, little is known about the workers who maintain them. In
the three years that state and local agents have been busting such
large-scale pot farms, only seven men have been arrested in connection
with them.

That was in 2008, when 5,000 plants were discovered growing in a
thickly wooded area on the border of Muskingum and Perry counties. Of
the men arrested, only one was convicted of felony drug possession. He
was sentenced to six months in prison. The rest were sentenced to time
served after pleading guilty to misdemeanor drug charges.

Rich Isaacson, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency's
Detroit field office, said most of the marijuana in the United States
crosses the border from Mexico. But he agrees with Duff that domestic,
outdoor operations are becoming more common and moving out of their
traditional locations on the West Coast.

Isaacson said it is impossible to say how much money such operations
bring the cartels each year. But, he observed: "They put a lot of
resources into them. It would be safe to assume it's a
multimillion-dollar operation."

Another concern for law enforcement is the increasing violence that
surrounds drug traffickers' attempts to protect their crops, which has
led to five shootings in northern California so far this year, he said.

Duff said Ohio sites so far have not had the deadly traps and armed
guards that are common in the West, but he thinks it is only a matter
of time.

Duff recommended that people who come across something they find
suspicious leave the area and contact local authorities as quickly as
possible. Because camps have been set up on both private and public
property, it's hard to determine where agents will find the next large
operation, but Duff is certain they will find them.

"I don't think they're going away," he said.