National Park After Dark - You Can't Grow Weed in a National Park

Episode Date: January 8, 2024

Illegal marijuana operations are popping up around National Parks in West, and they're worth millions of dollars. We examine the impact of these operations and stories that have lead to arrests and fatalities.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Stellar Sleep: Use our link to get a free 7-day trial, then just $99 per year.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.Hello Fresh: Use our link and code npadfree for free breakfast for life.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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November 6, 2012 was a good day for the United States. Citizens flocked to the polling offices and voted. Voters in Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for recreational use for the first time, even though it was still banned under federal law. Since that time, 24 states to date have legalized the recreational use of marijuana with many more with proposed bills to follow suit. Now there are over 5,500 dispensaries operating around the country. Its legalization proving to be a billion dollar industry for the United States. But not all marijuana operations are legal. In fact, many illegal grow sites,

still operate around the United States today, and the people doing it have discovered that national parks are the perfect, lush, remote, and discrete locations to do it in. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Colorado and Washington, I'm just going to say right now, I have good taste. You do. And I don't even smoke. Well, there's a lot of other ways to use marijuana, too. You can eat them.

You can... Yeah, bad times for me. Bad times. In moderation, it's good. Can I tell you one quick story? Oh, well, right off the bat. Hi, everyone. Welcome back.

Hey. We've dedicated an entire episode to talk about weed. Well, I'll tell you this really quick story. Like, so fast. Tell me. Okay. So when I first lived, moved to Colorado the first time in 2014, my ex-boyfriend came out to visit me and we stopped at a dispensary the night before the night he was supposed to leave. We stopped at his dispensary and we got just one cookie.

We were going to split it so he could have it for the plane ride and just like zonk out on the way home. And we ate it and then we like had some time to kill. So we went out to a brewery and we got so high. Like I was in another dimension. I left my body and I don't know what's going on with him, but we got so high, we forgot where we parked the car. Like, I never even drove here. I was so confused. I'm like, there's no way that we even drove a car here. Like, I don't have my car. I have no idea. I have no memory. Was it a big parking lot?

It was in downtown Denver. So we had parked on a side street. So it wasn't in a lot. Oh, so you had the whole city to comb through. Yes. And I started panicking. I started freaking out. And then I was like, we're not going to. I was like, I am so sorry, but I, you're going to miss your flight because number one, I can't drive. And number two, we're lost. And he's like, we, there's no way we walked that far. Like, your car has to be around here somewhere. Long story short, we ended up just walking to a hotel and caught a hotel for the night. Because I literally couldn't have. And he couldn't figure it out either because, clearly. So between, so he missed his flight. Yes. I was so pissed. I'm like, look,

We both did this. It's not just me. Yeah. He could have taken an Uber. Yeah, that's true. We're Uber's a thing in 2014. Definitely. Okay.

Well, we... This is his fault. Not yours. Right. That's basically what I'm trying to say. But it was just so funny because then the next morning I'm like, okay, well, I still don't know where my car is. And we had to, like you said, comb through the streets.

Because then to get to a hotel, we like got even more lost. Turns out it was like two streets away from the original bar that we were at. Yeah, I'm sure you would have parked close to the list. location you're trying to be in. That's hilarious. That's so funny. So that's why I don't smoke. I actually, the first dispensary I ever went to was actually in Colorado in 2016, 15, 2015, I think. It was somewhere, I don't even know where, but it was somewhere in Denver or Boulder, somewhere in that area. But I'll always remember one time, I feel like everyone has a wheat story that, like you just told yours. and I have one and it doesn't really involve me as much as it involves one of my friends.

But I'll always remember this because it was so funny. My friend, she was not my roommate at the time in college, but later in life. She was my roommate and it was around Christmas time and she had eaten a rice crispy treat that was made with weed butter. And I think I had had some too, but it tasted bad so I didn't want it. But anyway, we were watching The Grinch and she was so high. She was just sitting in front of the screen like an inch from the screen. Like her eyeballs were almost touching the screen.

And she was just sitting there and didn't move at all. And I remember being like, hey, are you okay? And she's like, yeah, I really like this movie. And she wasn't paying like that much attention. And this was, I think this was like, she had a DVD player or something. And on the screen, I used the remote to back up the video. And I went back to like the first 10 minutes of the movie. And she didn't notice.

and she just kept watching it with her eyeballs like an inch from the screen. And I remember we came, we're like, we're going to go get food. And we came back and she was still sitting in that exact spot. We're like, do you think she'll notice if we rewind it again? So one of my other friends rewinded it again. And she just sat there, didn't notice it. She watched The Grinch three times and just stayed like glued in that one spot. My eyes hurt, like even thinking of that, like staring at a TV screen that close.

Yeah. For so long. yeah, you just don't realize, like, you just don't, time isn't real, you know, and you're just in another universe. And people can handle it. I'm just not one of them. I know, like Nataya, my best friend Natia in college, she smoked every single day, like multiple times a day and would just function as a normal person. Like, she'd go to class. Like, it took me a long time to realize when she was actually high because just talking to her, you would never know. She was just normal, yeah. I'm definitely not, I know a lot of people who can do that all.

and they function and are totally fine. I'm more of a person who at night when I want to go to sleep, I'm like, I'll eat a gummy or whatever and a little THC is helpful or if I'm just like really just want to zone out and chill during the day, but I'm not a functional. I'm not going to go out and finish a project or be productive. It's like I'm going to sit down and watch a movie, eat some food or go to bed. I mean, Loomy Labs, shout out, my supply has lasted me forever because I'm. I take the tiniest little like mouse bribal, like tiny.

Yeah, me too. I eat half of it and I'm like, this is perfect. This isn't a loomie ad either. This is just a stocking. So what do we? Yeah. Yeah. So this, I have compiled an entire episode because I discovered that you can't grow weed in a national park.

Were you surprised by that? No, I didn't think this is something that I should need to tell people either. but public service announcement, you cannot grow weed in a national park. And you would think that that's a given. Of course, you can't do that. That's on federal land. You can't. But history has shown that it's not very obvious for people because weed farms have been

popping up in national parks across the country, mainly on the West Coast in California. Which is unsurprising to no one. No. But it seems like that would be the absolute last place that you would want to do. It's on federal land. Like, you're just begging to get caught and in trouble. You are, but I was researching it because I thought the same thing. And national parks are extremely remote.

They have hundreds of thousands of acres of dedicated land that is preserved that no one can use. And the National Park Service only has a limited number of people who can patrol that amount of land. So a lot of these national parks, no one is visiting unless it's needed. You know, you go way out in the backcountry. and you might have a couple backcountry rangers out there. But in general, there's not a lot of people out there. So it's actually become a big issue. In the past few decades alone, close to a billion dollars in weed,

have been found in just Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park alone. And of course, we know marijuana is not naturally growing there. It's because there are these huge weed farms that have been popping up in their backcountry. Wait, what did you say between any years? Just in the past couple decades, like past 20 years. Yeah. Okay. There have been weed plantations that have popped up in Whiskey Town National Recreation Area, Santa Monica National Recreation Area, Pointe Reyes National Seashore, North Cascades National Park, Yosemite.

North Cascades surprises me. It's interesting that you say that because I kind of thought that. But then after I did research, I did North Cascades was actually what led me down this wormhole. of research into weed farms in national parks. Well, that's interesting. But the visitation aspect of it I get from that angle because it's one of the least visited national parks and there's a ton of backcountry there. But as far as like the client, I don't know anything about growing marijuana, but it just would seem like it would be a difficult place to do that. Short season for sure.

Okay. Very short season. But Washington in the summer, those few months, they have a lot of sunlight. That's true. And North Cascades is extremely remote. And actually, my research started in the North Cascades because not only has, did they discover a huge marijuana farm that was growing there, but they also have a huge drug smuggling problem because they're on the Canadian border. So North Cascades is actually a hot spot for drugs. And I hate saying that marijuana is a drug because it just feels.

Yeah, feels too severe. of a word. Like it's not a drug. It's just a little plant like cocaine or heroin. Right. No, but it is a big problem that's happening in North Cascades. And in 2015, they discovered a major marijuana farm who was actually operating under who they think to be the Mexican cartel. They weren't only dealing with this weed farm, but park rangers are often discovering and sometimes even rescuing drug smugglers.

in the remote Washington wilderness of the North Cascades. And what kind of spiraled me into this research of weed farms is because I discovered a story of someone who needed to be rescued inside of North Cascades National Park because they were drug smuggling. I'm sure that went over well. Yeah, so I thought I would tell his story briefly in this episode because it's short. He gets caught. But a 34-year-old named William Caris, I think is how you pronounce it, he was caught smuggling

about 16 ounces, which is a. equivalent to $4,000 in weed over the border from Canada into the North Cascades. Unfortunately for him is that he didn't prepare very well and he didn't notice that there was a huge Arctic freeze in blizzard that was going to be coming in during his time there. So he actually ended up needing to be rescued by the National Park Service. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible. love stories and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after,

The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. If you're familiar with North Cascades National Park, then you're probably very aware that it contains some of the most remote and rugged wilderness in the country. The park preserves 684,000. acres and 90% of that is designated wilderness. It includes 318 glaciers, vast forests, waterways, along with the North Cascades Range, with mountain peaks over 10,000 feet or 3,048 meters in elevation. Located in northern Washington just across the border into Canada, it is surrounded by even more wilderness. This area is rugged year-round, but especially in the wintertime.

So when Park Rangers discovered William Carus in the middle of the backcountry of the park, in the middle of January, it was a bit of a surprise. William, however, knew that the marijuana in British Columbia was really good and that it sold well in the United States. Often, this marijuana was referred to as BC Bud. Just one pound of it would sell in the United States for three grand. So William devised a plan to cross the border and he knew that the borders of North Cascades National Park, along with Ross Lake and Chalon National Recreation Areas, which are also within the National Park boundaries would be less patrolled, especially in the wintertime. It was late January in 2002. He had a backpack full of winter gear and camping equipment, and he also brought along with him a

one-man plastic raft for water crossings. He planned for the entire venture to take just about three days. He started in Hope British Columbia, where he followed Silver Skagit Road, which is not patrolled or maintained in the wintertime. He followed that across the border until he reached Ross Lake. When he reached Ross Lake, instead of carrying all of his belongings, I should mention that Ross Lake doesn't usually freeze in the winter. Instead of carrying all his belongings, he decided to put his gear in the raft and then tow it along the edge of the lake. Unfortunately, the raft that he was using was very cheap. And on the shores of Ross Lake, it's really rocky with sharp-edged rocks. And it wasn't long before he actually punctured a hole in it. And before he was able to save his raft, his raft, and all of his gear sank under the water. Day one. Not off to a great start. Yeah. William also made another mistake. If he had checked the weather, he would have seen a major Arctic freeze was about to blow into the region.

On his first day, he faced 40 mile per hour winds, 10 degree temperatures, and a blizzard. Fortunately for him, one thing that he did not make a mistake on is he had told some friends of his plans. And when there was no word from him on day three, they contacted the park service and reported him overdue. Like our friend was just camping. He wasn't smuggling drugs across the border. Can you try and find him? So they immediately sent out a search party and they deployed helicopters, people on skis, and sent people out by boat to look for him.

After about 10 hours, they did find him. And upon finding him, they discovered that he had been hiking about 72 miles, that he was seeking refuge inside some bare boxes to avoid the wind. But it was too cold. So he couldn't stay in there very long. So he would sit in there, stop for a minute, take a break, realized if he stayed in there, he would die of hypothermia. And then he said he just kept moving because he knew if he stopped, he would probably die. So he was just hiking around for 72 miles. And the way the park service found him was they actually saw his footprints. And they noticed that he was becoming increasingly sporadic. They were following him. It looked like he was on a trail. Then he started walking in circles, which is a very clear cut sign of the beginning effects of hypothermia. He was starting to get confused. And when they found him, he had an ankle. He had an ankle. He was a injury and some frostbite and he was showing signs of hypothermia, but he refused medical attention.

And I don't know if it was the hypothermia and the confusion or what was going on, but when Park Rangers questioned him on what he was doing, he actually told them that he had a bunch of weed on him and he was carrying it across the border. He also told them that this wasn't his first time, that he had successfully done this several times before. So I feel like he was like, I've done this before. It's not that dumb. Like, I don't know why I got lost this time. So park rangers are like, okay, buddy, like not only did we save you, but now we're arresting you. Yikes. Yeah.

Not too good. So he was arrested in charge with smuggling and distribution. And William wasn't the first arrest that this had happened. I mean, this is an ongoing problem within the park. But in 2008, Park Rangers discovered an entire marijuana farm in their backcountry. And this was the first one that they had ever found there. It was located in remote location near Ruffalo. Ross Lake and off on a steep hike off of the East Bank hiking trail.

Law enforcement had gotten wind of what was happening near the backcountry of Ross Lake Recreation Area after a helicopter flew over the grow site that was working on a maintenance project within the park. Officials deployed nine law enforcement agencies with over 50 people to the site. The growers either had a heads up or saw them coming and ran off before they could be caught, but it was believed that they were part of the Mexican cartel. Law enforcement that day uprooted 16,742 pot plants and hauled them away in trucks to be destroyed. And it was estimated to be a $48 million operation that was happening inside the park. Like, okay, this is a interesting place to do it.

So North Cascades is definitely a place that people are doing this. And while it may be legal implications that come to mind for a lot of people listening, like, oh my God, that's a lot of money. That's a huge illegal operation. The National Park Service was a lot more focused on not that they were growing weed, but the fact that they were actually destroying and ruining the park. Oh, yes, there's also that. I didn't even think about that.

Yeah. In this raid, they found over 1,000 pounds of garbage, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation piping, propane canisters, and other equipment that they had to remove. Not only was this left behind because they had run off before they came, but they also realized when they came to the site that they were. they had clear-cut old-growth Douglas Furs. They had constructed fences that interrupted wildlife. They left behind evidence of wildlife traps.

They had constructed their own living quarters and left garbage and human waste behind. On top of that, they had changed the landscape by leveling parts of the land and dispelled an unknown amount of chemicals onto this land, which could have long-lasting impacts on the environment. They also built black piping, collecting stream water to irrigate the plants with sprinklers,

and the growers had placed rat traps with poison all along the mountainside, which, as we know, would have devastating impacts on the wildlife. So part of, for people who are listening, part of why mouse poison is so bad. And I know a lot of people use it is because one, no one tells the wildlife that it's only for mice and it's flavored. So lots of critters are going to get into it, not just mice. But also, once the mice die, other animals are going to eat the mice because mice have a lot of predators. So when they find just a dead mouse laying around for them to eat, they're going to eat it, and then they're going to be poisoned as well. So when these National Park Rangers were finding this in the National Park, it was a clear sign that they didn't even know the

amount of interruptions and wildlife impacts that this was going to have. Another very concerning thing about this was after a law enforcement unearthed all these plants, what was left remaining was a barren landscape with massive craters in the ground from where they had dug all this up. Officials estimated that the people had been living and working there for at least two growing seasons based on the amount of waste that they had left behind. It just seems like mass destruction in the wake of their operation. It just, it's awful because it seems like not one part of the landscape was left undisrupted. Yeah, at least in that region. In that area. Yeah. Yeah. What people will do for $48 million. Well, yeah, very true. And it was, it was tough for the park service too because cleaning and restoring

the area took hundreds of hours of labor and they required volunteers. It cost a lot of money. And then after that, park rangers had a new job that they had to take on and that was that they had to regularly visit the area to monitor for any invasive plant species that could pop up because of this. And I actually read further into the research that I was doing that there was evidence that these people actually came back because they found more trash at the site that they left behind. They cleared everything out, came back like a couple weeks later and there was more garbage that they left behind. Oh my God.

So they maybe didn't realize that there. operation had been found out and then went to revisit it, you think? I think that they knew that it was found out, but I think they came back to collect anything that might be left behind. And then they leave trash behind. Oh, my God. Leave no trace. Even if you're...

They give shit about that. Yeah. And like, we just destroyed a ton of acres in a national park, but we made $48 billion, million. Yeah. Right. Maybe they plant trees after. Now, while these culprits got away without any reprogressions in this instance,

their setup and equipment left a very large clue who they were. And law enforcement believed that they were the same people who were setting up a string of operations in national parks around California. It is believed that these farms are popping up in national parks because it provides an easy place for people to pack up and run without getting caught. And like I said before, there's thousands of miles, miles of wilderness with limited patrolling. So California became a huge hotspot for this. And they started seeing it now in Washington. In 2021, a massive marijuana farm, 40 acres in size, was discovered in Jail Canyon of Death Valley National Park. Jail Canyon is located in the Panamint Mountains.

It is a less visited area of the park, but it is full of beautiful colors, has remnants of an old mining camp and a mill that can be explored. And while the location was strategically chosen because it was accessible and remote, it has caused significant problems for hikers in the national park. The National Park Service began getting reports from hikers that while in this area, they were being aggressively threatened to leave. But from unknown people who were clearly not park personnel and were acting very strangely. And again, at this site when they discovered it, it was found that they were using highly toxic pesticides for their plants and did severe harm to the ecosystem. Barbara Durham, a traditional historic preservation officer for the Timbisha Shoshone tribe, was quoted saying, we are deeply saddened and concerned with the damage that these illegal activities cause. This was one of 20 sites that have been found in this area of Death Valley National Park.

While it isn't necessarily a common issue for park goers, the National Park Service recognizes that these illegal activities are still happening in the park to today, and likely they haven't discovered them yet. They're so convinced that this is happening that they have even issued a warning on their National Park site that states, Visitors to Death Valley's most well-traveled areas are not at risk of finding a marijuana grow site. However, hikers in remote areas near water sources should remain alert. Turn around and leave if they notice signs of suspicious activity, such as excessive amounts of trash, hillside terracing, or plastic irrigation tubing.

Once safe, they should notify rangers at the visitor center or call the National Park Service tip line. Which I thought was crazy because I have never once considered that I've, could stumble across a massive million dollar gross site operation. And now the National Park Service is literally putting out a warning like, hey, if you're a backcountry hiker, careful out there. Give us a heads up and be careful. But be careful because the cartel's out there. It's terrifying. Like at face value for a lot of people, I feel like, oh, you're hiking and you stumble across a marijuana farm. It's like the heavens up, it's like, oh, it's like perfect. This is great. No. Like I would be so afraid for my life. I'd be like, someone sees me. They think I'm going to

I don't know, like steal them. This isn't Harold and Kumar where you can go like burn it up and camp next to it. I don't think I've ever seen that. It reminds me of for some reason Ozark is coming to mind even though that was money laundering. Heroin. Yeah. Drugs. Yeah.

Well, we're kind of talking about illegal operations right now. So I guess there is some type of tie-in. But like remember the farm, it's been so long since I've watched Ozark, but the farm, the poppy farm or something. that they were like, it looked beautiful and amazing, but they were guarding with, you know, they would kill everyone. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't watched that show in a while either, but I did binge watch all of it at one point. Yeah, I would be so afraid. And like in Death Valley of all places, like it's already a rough place to be. No one's coming to help you out there. No. It's called Death Valley for a reason. I swear to God, if anything happened to those pupfish because of-

Because of this. They are near water. I know. That's what I. Protect the pup fish. They're fucking, what, 70 something of them or whatever? I forget I'd have to re-look at my research. But yeah, there's not many, not many of them there. In 2017, Chief Ranger Ned Kelleher of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park was quoted saying marijuana cultivation is one of the greatest human-caused threats to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park at this time. In the past 20 years, over 30,000 marijuana plants have been found within the park boundary. equating to around $850 million in pot.

So it's not just Death Valley either. They're saying this is one of the biggest human problems that they're having within the park, which is wild. Sequoia National Park in California is famously known for their giant Sequoia trees, which are some of the largest trees in the entire worlds. It also protects over 40,000 acres of more forests and mountain landscapes. In 2015, Toribio Cruz Galvin set up a marijuana farm in the Yucca Mountain area, which is famously known for its beautiful spring wildflower displays.

He was caught with 1,016 thriving marijuana plants and was in the middle of processing 51 pounds of marijuana, which is upwards of $300,000 in cash value. The operation caused significant damage to National Parkland and natural resources. Fertilizer, rodenticide, propane tanks, and 300 pounds of trash were removed from the grow site. It is estimated that over one million gallons of water was diverted from the nearby spring to irrigate the marijuana plants, which I will also say is very concerning in California because they go through significant droughts. Right. So you're taking a million gallons of that water that is needed and you're using it to grow weed.

So this is, well, you said it's still ongoing. So I guess that kind of negates my question. Because I was going to say, so is this all before it was legalized? Like, was the, do you think the operations were more popular or like more numerous before marijuana was legalized or? Potentially. So a lot, I believe if I look back, 2016 was when California legalized recreational use. But in 2023, they're still having these issues. So I think a lot of these are people who are just having their own illegal grow operations. Even though you can sell weed, they're also creating their own weed. So I don't know. where the weeds going or anything like that. I mean, there's going to be illegal operations, no matter what's legal or not legal. It's always going to be a thing, especially because it's like, I mean, the person who has this operation going, I bet you that person is not the same type of guy or woman

who would be like, oh, it's legal now. So I'm going to pack up and go get my taxes. Yeah. Yeah. There's no way. Well, they think it's the Mexican cartel, which is largely behind some a lot of this, I don't think all of it, but that's a major source. So you know, they're not following the rule books by any means. Yes, they don't, no, they're not doing that. No. And while this person's arrest and sentencing were a relatively smooth process for law enforcement considering how things go with that, not all marijuana raids have ended so successfully. With the amount of illegal marijuana operations and the damage to the environment, tensions have risen between the National Park Service and even some of the local people. Suspitions and rumors of operations have spread, some real and some

with false motives, and have led to fatalities. On October 2nd, 1992, a raid of 61-year-old Donald P. Scott's National Park adjacent land resulted in his death after being shot by law enforcement. Donald owned a 200-acre parcel of land that was also known as the Trails End Ranch. This ranch was entirely surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and was estimated to be worth about $5 million. For years, the National Park Service had been buying land in the surrounding area, and they had even approached Donald several times with offers to buy his land, to which he turned down each time. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is located in the greater Los Angeles region within the Santa Monica Mountains and preserves one of the best examples of Mediterranean climate

ecosystems in the world. The park is renowned for its continued preservation of mountain lions and its research on how big cats are adapting and surviving in urbanized areas. This park is known as Los Angeles's wild outback and is the country's largest urban national park. And I feel like when I say that, some people might not know exactly where that is, but a prominent part of the park that brings a lot of visitors is Griffith Park and Griffith Observatory. So if you've been there or if you know where that is, it's that surrounding area. We've seen it. I've been there before. Oh, well, when we were there for, when the heck were we there? For my birthday. Oh, for our live show. Yeah.

In December. Yeah. Two years ago? Three years ago. Is it three years ago now? There's no way. Well, maybe, actually. Maybe.

Because Ian was with us. He was. I feel like it was two years ago. It was two December's ago. Okay. Yeah. And we didn't, I know we didn't go, but either. on our way there.

We pointed to it. Yeah, on the way to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. We're like, oh, there it is. Yeah, I've been there years ago. I think it was like 2015. I was in California and I visit there the same time I visit Yosemite for the first time. So we went there. There was some event happening.

There was a lot of people there and we walked around inside the observatory and outside and stuff. And we hiked up to the top. So we took a trail. It was cool. It was fun. So that's part of this area. that you're talking about. Okay. Yes. This is part of this national park. Very. Okay. When you said,

what did you call it, the outback or something? Yeah, Los Angeles is outback. Yeah, I was expecting something like maybe on the outskirts of L.A., but yeah, no. Okay. Now I have a bit of idea. It's like the last wilderness. It's the last frontier of L.A. that isn't part of the city. Well, the mountain lion, the famous P-24, what was it, P-24? I want to say 24 because that's my lucky number. And it's probably wrong. Remember that famous mountain lion that just died that was like so well-loved and studied in that area? I say just died, but probably like six months to a year ago now. P-81. 81. Yeah. There we go. Yeah. Yeah, it was, the mountain lion was hit by a car in January of 2023. So just about a year ago. Yeah, that's a story. That is a story for sure. We'll revisit that one. Yeah, for today, though. Back to Donald. So Donald's land was of particular value to them because his property essentially disrupted the boundaries of the National Park Service. So they had this entire national park and then there's 200 acres of Donald's land, just sitting smack dab in the middle.

Donald, however, was a multimillionaire from his family's fortune after they worked with a European-based chemical company. And he enjoyed his land and he had no interest in being bought out by the park service. He didn't care how much money they were waving in his face. He's like, I have millions of dollars. I just like it here. I'm not selling it to you. Which that may or may not be relevant to the story, but I think is important to note. In 1991, an informant, I'm jumping all around for years also, by the way, we're like, we're in 2023. We're in 1991. We're all over the place. But in 1991, An informant for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office reported that Donald's wife, her name was Francis, was frequently visiting the Malibu area and she was acting suspicious. They reported that she was carrying around wads of cash in $100 bills and would even pay for very small purchases with a $100 bill.

They also said that she was tipping extravagantly all in cash. Why was she having someone monitor her? This is just a random informant that went to the point. police, it sounds like, and reported her activity. And I will say I read in one thing that her family had ties, her family name had ties to a heroin operation. But I don't know if that was her immediate family or just other people or if it doesn't seem like she was involved, but her family name kind of was tainted from that. Okay. This informant even gave her license plate number to the BMW that she was driving to prove that it was her that was doing these things. And police didn't do much with

that information, but they remained suspicious of how the family was getting their money. And I kind of think of it as like 1991, she had all this cash, but her and her husband are millionaire. So is it really, is it really that weird? I don't know. And yeah, mind your own business. Yeah. Are you supposed to spend money how they want? Right? I just for me, I guess that's kind of odd. Like for if she was, if her and her husband came from more humble means and then overnight she has all these wads of cash that she's, you know, extravagantly spending. That's one thing to kind of make people suspicious. But again, mind your business. If she's tipping well, leave her alone. Yeah, right. Queen, go about your day. She's probably on Rodeo Drive. Oh, no, you said she's in Maldiv. I don't know anything about Malibus. I'm sure she went to a Rodeo drive too at some point. It wasn't until one year later in September of 1992 that a confidential informant reported to the department that Donald had 3 to 4,000 marijuana plants growing on his property. They also claimed to have heard Donald's wife speaking about the marijuana plants on their property. This informant was not someone who was familiar to the LA department, but after speaking with another law enforcement department who said that they were reliable, they called the National Park Service to let them know of this new discovery.

They decided to collaborate together on an investigation and height into the National Park to an area of a waterfall that overlooked Donald's parcel of land. They wanted to see if they could get a good view of these marijuana fields for themselves. To their disappointment, they didn't see anything. Instead, they decided to conduct an aerial surveillance of the property, and that same day, they flew an RF-4 jet over it. They surveillance the area daily over the next seven days. At the time, the National Park Service was part of what was called Operation Alliance, which was a marijuana eradication project that was allowed to use the Air National Guard for aerial photography. So they were even allowed to bring in the Air National Guard to help them with these types of things. The National Park Service presented the aerial photographs on September 22nd to a member of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the DEA, and the U.S. Forest Service in a meeting. Members who attended this meeting had issues with the photographs. because they were all in black and white, and experts claimed that part of identifying marijuana plants was due to their color. Ultimately, they concluded that they couldn't see any evidence of marijuana

on the property. However, they did spot what they believed to appear to be an illegal watering system. The water system appeared from an aerial view to be coming from the National Recreation Area, which would be illegal to use that. This would give them cause to enter Donald's property and to potentially get a warrant. They decided, that they needed a little bit more evidence before they went forward with that. So they decided to do more aerial surveillance to double check their findings. I don't know how I feel about that. This whole situation. Yeah, someone just flying over your property over and over again looking for something when they have no evidence so far of anything. And I know it's illegal,

but it's his property. Like why is everybody getting involved? Yeah. Like the US Forest Service and National Park Service, like all the, you know what I mean? It's just like, mind your business. It seems overkill. It's his property, yeah. It just, it seems very sneaky, snakey to me. And I don't like that. I feel like it's sneaky, sneaky too. Again, I know it was illegal, whatever. Anyway, go on. Yeah, I mean, I guess you can't, just because you have a lot of land doesn't mean you could grow whatever. Do whatever you want. Right. Yeah, like, you can't do whatever you want. But it is, it just feels weird because so far they're finding nothing that proves what they're trying. So they end up doing more aerial surveillance. And this time, they discovered what they believed to be about 50 pot plants. But it was a little, it was a little weird.

It was spread out. It seemed to be dispersed in areas that were kind of under tree cover. And finding 50 pot plants varied a lot from the report that they got of 3,000 plants that the informant had said. So they were kind of like, okay, I think I see 50 of them from the air. But it's really weird. They're dispersed. They're not how a normal weed farm would look. On September 24th, They decided to contact U.S. Border Patrol in Bakersfield, California, who had a team who could perform a ground surveillance of the property. They equipped a team with cameras, weapons, and climbing gear who went out to the ranch area three times and explored the property undetected three times, all without seeing any evidence of marijuana. So right on to his property. It sounded like it was on his property or it was the border or it was like just on the borders. It was kind of confusing how they said it.

seems weird that they would be able to get on his property without a warrant. I have a feeling it's like you said, kind of right around the perimeter. Yeah. And like just taking cameras and trying to look around and sneaky sneaky. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Law enforcement reached out to their informant to basically convey that they were having difficulty locating these 3,000 plants of marijuana that he saw and that they thought they saw some, but it was really dispersed and they were confused on wanted more clarification and exactly where this informant had seen them. And the informant relayed that he had seen pot plants that were actually suspended from the trees and not on the ground, which I don't really know much about weed growing, but I guess that that's not an unheard of way to grow pot, but it's it's much less common. But they kind of rationalize that that would explain why they were dispersed, while they were under trees, and kind of use that as leverage to be like, Oh, that makes sense. Okay, wait.

So they're hanging from the trees. Is that what you said? Allegedly. Okay. Like, okay. Sure. Whatever. Why didn't you just say that from the beginning so we can look up instead of looking down?

Yeah. It's like, oh, they're suspended from the trees. Look again. Like, okay. Okay. Sure. Is this informant someone who has a personal vendetta against Donald? I don't know.

So the reports that I read said nothing about who the informants were and left them as confidential. So I don't know. Like what, I don't even know if these informants actually existed or if this was just a crutch that the law enforcement were using. But still intent on serving a search warrant, the L.A. Sheriff's Department decided to do a risk assessment test. And this was where they wanted to see if when they executed a warrant, how dangerous the undertaking would be. And if they should bring in a SWAT team. And the way that they do this is they send in undercover agents to the family, to the property to assess how dangerous it is. So they decided to send two undercover agents disguised as people wanting to buy a puppy to access this family.

So Donald and his wife Francis were breeding Rottweilers at the time and they had some puppies. So basically they just came in and was like, hey, we really want a puppy. Can we come over? Which of course they said yes to. And when the agents arrived, the couple was really warm. They were kind. They showed them around the property. even showed them a waterfall that was on their land. Super nice, super nice couple. During their visit, they did notice that Donald had a gun on the property, but that wasn't unusual for the space. And the undercover agents kind of put that off as not a concern. Like, yeah, he has a weapon,

but a lot of people have weapons. He's really nice. The interaction was super friendly. And the couple actually ended up inviting the undercover agents to come back anytime. Like, hey, it was so nice to meet you, come back anytime, let us know if you want a puppy, just a super friendly couple. And these undercover agents came back to the law enforcement agency and reported that they weren't a threat at all. The threat was extremely minimal and that they should not use the SWAT team because it was very unnecessary. On October 1st, the Ventura County Municipal Court granted a search warrant for Donald's property. The morning of October 2nd at 7 a.m., a meeting was held at the Los Angeles sheriff's Malibu Station where they briefed everyone who'd be involved. There were 30 law enforcement

officers in total that consisted of people from the LA Police Department, the National Guard, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Like, you don't need many people, but let's send all these ones in. They briefed them that there were weapons in the house, but that they did not anticipate any problems, explain that the warrant was for the property, not the people or the house. So it should be a very quick entry to the house. And that if they found more than 14 plants in the property, the entire ranch would be seized. Which I think is a little crazy.

This whole thing is extreme. It's like 14 plants. What if you just like weed? And you're growing 14. It's illegal. Right? It's illegal at the time. Yeah.

But you're going to see someone's 200 acre property that conveniently is attached to a national park for 14. That's the only reason why they're doing this. It's like, it's got to be, right? This is the only justification for such a overreaction. Like, if this land wasn't wanted by the National Park Service, do you think that this caliber of response would have been a thing? I don't know. It's confusing because you would also think that the National Park Service could just use

eminent domain to take the land. Right. So why would you have to go through all of the park? this. Maybe because he's a millionaire and usually eminent domain stuff is kind of enacted on people who don't have a lot of monetary options. Maybe someone who can't fight it. So maybe this is a, I don't know. That's one thing that was left uncertain from all of my research was the motive. But we can kind of get into that at the end of it. So at approximately 8.30 a.m. that same morning, law enforcement used bolt cutters to cut the padlock on the gate to enter their property. And

And then they scattered all into their positions surrounding the house, all armed and ready. Five deputies approached the front door of Scott's residence, while seven others surrounded their garage and barn with their weapons drawn. One of the deputies banged on their front door and loudly announced who they were and that they had a search warrant. He demanded that they opened their door. And in that same moment, the couple's 22 dogs erupted in calls and barking. So it's just a madhouse all the sudden. And they're Rottweilers, which is chaotic. Chaotic and loud.

Francis and Don had had a late night the day before, and they didn't fall asleep until almost 3 a.m. So when the officers knocked, they had actually been asleep in their beds. It was actually their dogs barking that woke them up because it was so loud and so much that their house started to shake. The dogs were also so loud that it muffled the sounds of the officers. And at first, Francis and Donald had no idea what was going on. They both started putting their clothes on to check on the commotion, and Francis was out of the room first. By the time she got closer to the door, officers had used a battering ram and broke it down. They ran into the house with their weapons drawn and pointed it at Francis.

She backed into the corner of her living room screaming at them, begging them not to shoot her. Donald, who at this point wasn't aware of what was happening yet, ran out of the room with his gun, having no idea that law enforcement was in his house, and he ran out into the living room. But when he ran out, he had his gun pointed up towards the ceiling rather than at anyone. A deputy ordered Donald to drop his gun and he, he agreed, he obeyed and he began to lower his arm and the gun that he was holding. The deputies continued to yell at him. Then in the next moment, three shots rang out and Donald was hit. He dropped to his knees and fell forward. His last words before he died in front of them were, oh God, what have you done?

Law enforcement then proceeded to search the 200-acre property. Not only did they find no evidence of marijuana or any intent to grow marijuana, the alleged marijuana plants that they claimed to have seen from aerial surveillance actually turned out to be ivy that was growing on the trees. Oh my God. What a fucking shit. Oh, my God. It's awful. That is so sad. That's just so sad.

It's awful. I mean, he, you came in, raided this person's property, lost his life, or debatedly, if he was even doing anything wrong in that moment, I mean, he heard his wife screaming, don't shoot me. He grabbed his gun and ran out to see what was happening to protect his wife, saw it was law enforcement, didn't point the gun at them, and tried to put it down and got shot. It's just, this is just wild. This is so, and to have not even one fucking marijuana plant. Not even one. Nothing. They found no evidence of anything. Not even the black piping, the water irrigation systems. Nothing was in place. Oh yeah. I forgot about that thing. Yeah. They said that they thought they saw them using a water source from the National Park area. And that could indicate a pot plant and was illegal to use the water source. They found nothing, not a single thing. Maybe she had so much cash because they were selling Rottweilers. Yeah. And he was a millionaire already. And who cares? And in 1991, no one used credit cards and debit cards. A lot of people. did use cash. Oh my God. That is such an awful story. Wow. I mean, not that it would be made any better

if they did indeed find something, but just the pure fact that they found absolutely nothing makes it so much more tragic. They were innocent people who, for whatever reason, were targeted. They're totally targeted. Definitely. And his family thought that too, and they agreed on that. And Scott's wife, along with his four children, filed a $100 million wrongful death suit against the county and the federal governments. And with that, the case took eight years to resolve, but finally in 2000, they agreed to settle for $5 million. Although law enforcement agencies maintained that they did not do anything wrong and that it was basically an accident that that happened and they didn't do anything wrong by shooting Donald because the officers who did it were in fear of their life. Oh, all two dozen of them in swap gear. Yeah.

Against one guy who just crawled out of bed with a single firearm. It's like, come on. Yeah, like that doesn't. A couple in their 60s who just crawled out of bed. Yeah, that's just the way you just described that about them, like, maintaining that they didn't do anything wrong and blah, blah, blah. It reminds me so loosely it has nothing to do with this case at all. but I just finished the bad surgeon docu series on Netflix. There's a podcast, Dr. Death does that whole series too.

Did you listen to Palos or see Palos this thing that I'm talking about? Yeah, I watched it too. Like just how adamant he was until the end with all of this evidence in front of him that he was in the wrong and he just stayed adamant until the end that he had done nothing wrong, maintained, you know, that he did the right thing. He did things by the books, yada, yada, yada. He was the same type of thing. He was doing trachea transplants with no science backing it up. And he was literally, I think it was just a plastic tube. It was. That he was just putting into people's bodies and said that he had discovered a way to do this and people who needed new tracheas would be safe. But he did no research to back that up. And all of them were rejected by

every patient that he had and he killed everyone except for, I think, like, one person. Yeah, he killed eight of the nine people, but the ninth person, it said they're known to still be alive, but they had that, the trachea removed. So, which is the only reason when they're still alive. But yeah, so basically, I mean, we don't even have to get into all that because that's also wild, but it's just the pure, like, well, like, you're, it is so, you're so clearly at fault, and yet you're going to just ride it until the end. And someone lost their life.

Right. It's just like take ownership of something. You know, it's like I'm sure no one involved wanted to see anyone die in this case. Yet someone did. And everything that was involved was just based on nothing. Yeah. It was a huge oversight. I just want to.

I'm so, so curious about who this informant was. Is it one person or was there multiple? They had two different. And it sounds like they were two different confidential informants. Okay. That said this. I don't know what their motives were, who was behind it. Some people debate whether or not they even existed. Some people argue that the real motive behind all of this was to steal his land. They wanted his land. They wanted it for the National Park Service. They wanted to get him in trouble. And the whole motive behind this was money. It was all greed. Other people argue that that's not true because the National Park Service could enforce eminent domain and just take the property if they really wanted to. So there's kind of. of an argument that's going on of why? Why did this happen? Was it purely just an accident, oversight, over reach of law enforcement's power and it ended in tragedy? Or was there a monetation or was there money that motivated all of this? I don't know. I think that the whole eminent domain thing

is a valid point. But like I mentioned, he had access to a lot of wealth and resources to fight something like that. And also, I feel like the park service wanted to do it. Not that I'm saying it was the park service, allegedly, if this was to be true. I feel like the park service wanted to go about it in a way that they're like, see, on paper, this is what he was doing. He was doing illegal things and we can't help that he did that. We're just now coming in to grab his land after he was, you know, whatever. Like I feel like in the public eye that looks better than enforcing eminent domain, which has caused them a lot of flack in the past. And this is a person or a family that I'm guessing wouldn't go down without some sort of publicity and a public fight and bringing attention to it versus people who have limited means, limited resources have no way of getting anyone to really care. but someone who has like this last little holdout of land who's a millionaire, you know,

like that would gain a lot of negative attention to the park service if they were to do that. But if they went in this roundabout way and we're like, oh, well, he was in the wrong. It kind of takes some weight off of that. I don't know. That's just my thoughts. It's a valid argument. It's a valid argument. And I will say that if that was part of the point behind all this, they failed immensely

because they brought a lot of attention to themselves with this raid and with Donald's death. Of course, people, especially when they found out that they didn't find any marijuana on his property and that he wasn't doing anything wrong, that gained a lot of attention. There were a lot of news articles, it became very public that this happened. And I will say, even though this case in particular was clearly, it was a fruitless investigation, a devastating end, it's not outlandish for them to believe that there could have been marijuana there, because there has been so many marijuana farms that are popping up. In fact, in 2011, a 10-acre pot farm with 3,500 marijuana plants were found within the boundaries of Santa Monica National Recreation Area.

And this time, they did find it for real, and there were herbicides, pesticides, miles of plastic water hosing and clear cutting of native plants that were going on there. So it is a problem in the region, but for this particular person, it was not. So do you know what, like, so I know you said it was a few years in court and they eventually settled for a fraction of what they were asking for. But what happened to the property? Does Francine, is it Francine or Francis? Francis, I was trying to look that up and it didn't seem like it was sold or anything. It doesn't seem like the National Park Service got hold of it or anything. I think especially after that whole thing. I think it, I think it's still in the family. Okay. I'm not positive on that. but I couldn't find anything that said it was sold to them. I just had a couple more tidbits here about marijuana plants in National Parks. In August 2007, National Park Rangers discovered over 7,000 marijuana plants inside of Yosemite National Park. That was estimated to be a $22 million grow operation.

There have been literally hundreds of thousands of illegal grow sites that have been discovered. And while my stories today were based around issues and not. National Parks, illegal marijuana grow operations have been a massive problem across U.S. public lands. In 2012, nearly 3.6 million plants were removed from more than 5,000 illegal grow sites. The U.S. Forest Service has reported that nearly 80% of those numbers are from California. What was that documentary? Do you remember that documentary about, I thought it was going to be about Bigfoot and it wasn't? Oh, I know. There's a document. I don't remember the name of it. It's called Sasquatch or something?

Maybe. Where they go into the California illegal mining, illegal weed operations and it's this huge criminal organization where people are being murdered. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking about, but I don't remember the name of the documentary. It alludes to Bigfoot.

Because it was Bigfoot searchers who found the weed grow, right? Oh, right. That's what it was. That was the tie-in. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

It's a huge issue and it's also a huge environmental issue because it's negatively affecting wildlife, vegetation, and water sources. Often there's poaching in these areas and they're destroying and changing the lands because the farming, they terraced the land, they flatten it. They move things around. It's just none of it's natural. Cultivators apply incesticides directly to plants to protect them from insect damage. chemical repellents and poisons are applied at the base of the cannabis plants and around the perimeter of grow sites to ward off or kill rats, deer, and other animals that could cause crop damage. These toxic chemicals enter and contaminate groundwater, pollute watersheds, and kill fish

and other wildlife. And as I mentioned a little bit earlier, it's also become a huge public safety concern. Individuals involved in these illegal grow operations can be found in public lands, national park lands, and tribal lands. Often these people are armed and dangerous, many times with semi-automatic assault rifles and high-powered rifles. The number of intimidation incidents and amount of violence associated with illegal marijuana grows on public lands has increased over the past two years. So all of this, this entire episode, is just a really long-winded way of saying, don't grow weed on national park lands. And also be careful out there, because if you notice activity, like it could be an illegal grow site, you should probably just get out of there immediately.

Wow. I would be really interested to hear if any of our listeners have ever stumbled upon an illegal grow operation. Yeah. I mean, if you have and you haven't written that in as a trail tale, what are you doing? Where are you? And please write to us. Yeah. So, well, what?

I just, I was not expecting that episode to go like that. I don't know what I was expecting. But for the park service to have warnings on their main sites in certain parks, that means it's a big issue. It's a big issue. And there's so much money involved, which means there's violence involved. And to just think you could just be a hiker out in the back country trying to enjoy your time and stumble upon an illegal operation that's worth millions and millions of dollars. And you knowing about them could be the end of their operation. They're going to kill you.

They're going to kill you. Yeah. Bye. There's a reason I'm not a backcountry hiker. And it's illegal marijuana grow operations. That was the whole reason this whole time. And you didn't even know it until today. There we are.

All right. Well, I guess everyone be safe out there and enjoy the view. But watch your back because you never know who's watching you. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at npadpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast.

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