A<\/span>lthough Colorado cannabis advocates promised that the black market would take a savage beating once a taxed and regulated system was put into place to support legal marijuana, some law enforcement agencies complain that illegal cultivation sites have actually become more rampant since the state made the decision to bring down prohibition.<\/p>\n A recent report<\/a> from Denver\u2019s CBS4 suggests that the Marijuana Unit of the Denver Police Department has been forced to ramp up its recruitment efforts ever since the state took its first step in the realm of pot reform by legalizing medical marijuana.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s team of weed killers is now working to enlist additional agents in order to keep up with the illegal cultivation sites they claim have surfaced since recreational marijuana came into the picture.<\/p>\n \u201cNow is the busy season,\u201d Denver P.D. Sergeant Aaron Rebeterano told<\/a> the local CBS affiliate. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of known as the harvest season<\/a> for us. People are starting to see the plants grow over the fences and they\u2019re getting to a large enough size that they can be seen from public view just by walking by.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the fact that the majority of Colorado voters hit the polls back in 2012 with their fists raised in the air in support of legal weed<\/a>, there are apparently still plenty of residents willing to snitch on their neighbors for growing a few more plants than what is legally permitted.<\/p>\n Sergeant Rebeterano says his team has been busy investigating numerous reports of homes running \u201cmultiple air conditioning units,\u201d as well as other indicators of illegal activity. Denver\u2019s<\/a> pot squad is now serving anywhere between five to nine search warrants every week simply because nosy neighbors cannot seem to mind their own business.<\/p>\n Still, Rebeterano wants to execute more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like to see the reporting happen more often,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t feel like we\u2019re getting all of the complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n But the majority of the illegal grow operations are not being run by the average marijuana user, Rebeterano said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are not the backyard smokers we\u2019ve seen in the past which has never been really a big deal and has never been a huge concern to anybody in the community I don\u2019t think,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is more organized criminal enterprises where they will do anything to protect those grows,\u201d said Rebeterano. \u201cRemember there is a lot of money they invest in them and we do see an increasing number of firearms and other crimes associated with them; home invasions, burglaries, robberies, things of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n The concept of criminal syndicates operating in the shadows of Colorado\u2019s fully legal pot market has been a hot topic of discussion<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n Over the summer, Colorado law enforcement agencies, along with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, took down a number of large-scale marijuana trafficking operations. These illegal outfits were reportedl<\/a>y using the state\u2019s legal environment to cultivate marijuana crops for distribution to areas of total prohibition.<\/p>\n One of the busts, conducted under the moniker \u201cOperation Toker Poker<\/a>,\u201d was reportedly \u201cthe largest illegal marijuana trafficking ring bust in Colorado history,\u201d according to the state\u2019s attorney general, Cynthia Coffman. Drug agents seized 2,600 illegal cannabis plants and over 4,000 pounds of packaged marijuana by the time the mission was complete.<\/p>\n \u201cThe black market for marijuana has not gone away since recreational marijuana was legalized in our state, and in fact continues to flourish,\u201d Coffman said<\/a>, back in June.<\/p>\n There was some concern that these types of negative reports might inspire U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions<\/a> to make good on his threat to launch a federal crackdown. But so far, the Department of Justice<\/a> has opted to maintain a safe distance.<\/p>\n However, Sessions recently told<\/a> radio host Hugh Hewitt that he believes \u201cfederal laws clearly are in effect in all 50 states. And we will do our best to enforce the laws as we\u2019re required to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the latest Gallup poll finds 64 percent<\/a> of the population now believe marijuana should be made legal nationwide.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> are you worried about illegal cannabis operations increasing?<\/p>\n The post Denver Police Claim Illegal Grow Ops Are Increasing<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Denver\u2019s pot police say that they\u2019ve had to double the number of undercover agents in their department to counteract the city\u2019s increasing illegal cannabis grows. Although Colorado cannabis advocates promised that the black market would take a savage beating once a taxed and regulated system was put into place toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,80,693,2176,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20666,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20665\/revisions\/20666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Denver Police Claim Illegal Grow Ops Are Increasing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"