ILLEGAL CROPS CREEP INTO THE SUBURBS

Increased Border Security Forces Growers to Change Locations, Officials Say

BARRINGTON, Ill. -- This town of 10,000 in the northwest Chicago
suburbs is home to upscale subdivisions, one of the wealthiest Zip
codes in the country, and borders a leafy forest preserve popular with
bird-watchers, hikers and runners.

So, to many people, it was a shock when federal and state agents
raided the preserve two weeks ago and eradicated 18 fields of about
60,000 marijuana plants, some of them 8 feet tall.

Marijuana crops on public land are old news in Appalachia and the
Pacific Northwest. But drug enforcement agents and drug policy
analysts say tighter security along the U.S.-Mexico border since the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has led to an increase in
domestic marijuana cultivation closer to urban areas such as the one
at the Crabtree Nature Center.

"Obviously, it saves the drug organizations money when they can grow
it here in the U.S., instead of smuggling it across the border," said
Joanna Zoltay, spokeswoman for the Chicago field division of the Drug
Enforcement Administration. "Since 9/11, the border is definitely
tighter. There have always been crops grown on public land, but since
9/11, there's been a steady increase."

Lloyd Easterling, acting assistant chief of the U.S. Border Patrol,
said 145,438 pounds of marijuana were seized at the border during the
fiscal year that ended June 30, up from 138,822 pounds in the previous
year.

The deployment of National Guard troops to the border in Operation
Jump Start has put pressure on drug smugglers, he said.

"We've added additional manpower, more tactical infrastructure, more
technology in the field; we have more people and more things in more
places than we've ever had before, so it's definitely a lot harder" to
get drugs across, he said.

Zoltay said marijuana crops are discovered in suburban Chicago
preserves every year, but the plant count is usually in the hundreds.

In 2006, more than 4.8 million marijuana plants were found on public
land, up from 3.9 million in 2005 and 2.9 million in 2004, Zoltay
said, noting that plants seized from public land outnumber indoor
seizures 10 to 1.

Large operations in suburban areas are still rare, DEA officials said,
but the pressure on the border could change that.

"You're not normally going to see drug-growing near urban areas where
it will raise flags," said Ramona Sanchez, spokeswoman for the DEA's
Phoenix field office. "But drug traffickers will do whatever they can."

The marijuana found in the Crabtree preserve, which is close to
several interstates, would have been worth more than $30 million on
the street, the DEA estimates. Agents also found a campsite stocked
with tables, canned and perishable food, cots, a tent, an irrigation
system powered by a generator using pond water, and an underground
bunker with logs blocking the entrance.

"It was pretty elaborate and sophisticated," Zoltay said. "These guys
were there for the long haul."

The Crabtree marijuana operation began to unravel on June 10 when an
intern studying foxes for a local conservation organization saw three
men pumping water from the pond in an overgrown part of the preserve.
He reported it to county officials, and helicopter surveillance soon
revealed the illegal activity.

On July 24, law enforcement officers from more than 50 agencies --
state, local and forest preserve police, Army and Air National Guard
and the DEA -- closed in to seize the crop and destroy it.

They arrested two men dressed in camouflage clothing at the site and
charged them with state felony counts of cultivating marijuana and
criminal damage to land. The plants were cut down and burned.

"Everybody is pretty startled this was going on this close to
Barrington," Barrington Police Chief Jeff Lawler said.

At a sports bar several miles from the preserve, Chris White said he
often walks in the area and recently considered bushwhacking in a spot
he thinks was close to the marijuana operation.

"I'm glad I didn't," he said. "It's funny; I was just thinking that
area would be a good place for homeless people to live or something.
Little did I know."

White, 45, and several friends who grew up in the area, said they were
not surprised by the news.

One man who would not give his name said that as a youngster he would
pick "garbage" marijuana being grown on the shores of a nearby lake.

And Mike Pallone, who played in the preserve as a child, said, "I've
always heard stories; there's a lot more than you think."