{"id":7703,"date":"2017-09-08T18:07:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T18:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=2780672"},"modified":"2017-09-08T18:07:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T18:07:03","slug":"9200-pot-plants-found-growing-on-islands-in-the-colorado-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/9200-pot-plants-found-growing-on-islands-in-the-colorado-river\/","title":{"rendered":"9,200 pot plants found growing on islands in the Colorado River"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/9200-pot-plants-found-growing-on-islands-in-the-colorado-river\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>More than 9,200 pot plants being grown illegally on two islands in the middle of the Colorado River were seized Thursday in a bust by a Western Slope drug task force.<\/p>\n<p>The pre-dawn raid by more than 50 local and federal law enforcement officers approaching the grow on foot and by boat also resulted in the arrest of two of three armed men guarding the operation about 100 yards from Interstate 70 in De Beque Canyon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was right next to the freeway,\u201d Denver DEA spokesman James Gothe said. \u201cSomebody is going to be very disappointed this year because they didn\u2019t make a lot of money from marijuana sales.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A year after a man was caught carrying thousands of marijuana seeds in his pants pockets to an island in the river just north of the Island Acre section of James M. Robb State Park, Bureau of Land Management agents returned to the area to see if anyone had returned to the island, he said. A camp was discovered.<\/p>\n<p>Officers from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Marshals office, Grand Junction police and the Mesa County Sheriff\u2019s Department were involved the raid and months of surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>One man escaped. Two suspects from the state of Sinaloa in Mexico were captured and face federal charges. The men were armed with pellet guns, Gothe said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gjsentinel.com\/news\/articles\/huge-pot-grow-pretty-brazen\/\">A DEA helicopter lifted plants to a landing zone at Island Acre.<\/a> Some of the plants were loaded into Mesa County Public Works dump trucks and taken to the Mesa County Landfill and mixed with sewage. Another 200 plants \u2014 and their root balls \u2014 were preserved as evidence in the federal case.<\/p>\n<p>Plants were hidden behind cottonwood trees and brush, but not completely, Gothe said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could see some of the tops of the plants from the highway,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just another situation of people coming here to Colorado thinking they are not going to get arrested for growing marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To see more photos of the raid go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gjsentinel.com\/news\/galleries\/debeque-canyon-colorado-river-marijuana-bust-september-7-2017\">gjsentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\">\n<ul>\n<li><span>June 30, 2017<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/06\/30\/illegal-marijuana-grow-san-isabel-national-forest\/\" title=\"Hiker finds illegal marijuana grow worth $7 million in San Isabel National Forest\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-2702827\"> Hiker finds illegal marijuana grow worth $7 million in San Isabel National Forest <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<li><span>May 31, 2017<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2017\/05\/31\/san-isabel-forest-marijuana-guard-sentenced\/\" title=\"Mexican man who guarded clandestine marijuana crop on San Isabel National Forest land gets year in prison\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-2667881\"> Mexican man who guarded clandestine marijuana crop on San Isabel National Forest land gets year in prison <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<li><span>July 7, 2016<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/07\/07\/illegal-marijuana-grow-mexican-cartel-confiscated-pueblo\/\" title=\"Marijuana grow connected to Mexican cartel dismantled south of Pueblo\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-2084707\"> Marijuana grow connected to Mexican cartel dismantled south of Pueblo <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<li><span>August 11, 2016<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/08\/11\/illegal-marijuana-grow-pike-national-forest\/\" title=\"Feds eradicate 5-acre illegal marijuana grow west of Colorado Springs, find 18,300 plants\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-2122704\"> Feds eradicate 5-acre illegal marijuana grow west of Colorado Springs, find 18,300 plants <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<li><span>August 17, 2012<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2012\/08\/17\/pot-bust-in-national-forest-near-pueblo-one-of-colorados-largest\/\" title=\"Pot bust in national forest near Pueblo one of Colorado\u2019s largest\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-343978\"> Pot bust in national forest near Pueblo one of Colorado\u2019s largest <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<li><span>September 9, 2010<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2010\/09\/09\/big-pot-bust-takes-place-in-pike-national-forest\/\" title=\"Big pot bust takes place in Pike National Forest\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-691399\"> Big pot bust takes place in Pike National Forest <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<li><span>August 19, 2015<\/span> <a class=\"article-title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2015\/08\/19\/3900-plants-removed-from-illegal-marijuana-grow-in-jefferson-county\/\" title=\"3,900 plants removed from illegal marijuana grow in Jefferson County\"> <span class=\"dfm-title optimizely-88564\"> 3,900 plants removed from illegal marijuana grow in Jefferson County <\/span> <\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>The feds found more than 9,200 pot plants being grown illegally on two islands in the middle of the Colorado River &#8212; in clear view of Interstate 70. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6813,77,6814,6933,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6818,2655,6819,6934,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}