[ad_1]
To residents of Cave Junction, the legacy of legal weed is a pattern of extraction and exploitation that recalls the boom years of the timber industry. But this time, the exploiters are criminal enterprises.
The nerve center of Oregon’s largest criminal enterprise lies in a deep evergreen vale called the Illinois Valley, 15 miles north of the California border.
To find one of its field offices, drive south from Grants Pass on the Redwood Highway. One mile north of Cave Junction, you emerge from dense forests to the sight of the Holiday Motel. The squat motor lodge appears unchanged since the 1950s, except for a new coat of blue paint. It’s eerily quiet, and junk is piled up behind the building.
In July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Josephine County sheriff’s deputies searched the Holiday Motel and found an illegal cannabis grow of almost 6,000 pot plants in the motel’s backyard.
The motel housed weed trimmers from Mexico, a detective tells WW. “They occasionally rented rooms for [tourists] passing by,” he says. The sheriff’s office believes the operation was connected to an international drug trafficking organization. [Read More @ Willamette Week]
[ad_2]
Source link
