Thursday, May 01, 2008

Miami Police Bust Up The Evil Green Menace

Let's give a round of applause to the Miami Police who arrested more than 50 people in a crackdown on marijuana "grow houses." Miami residents must be feeling safer already.
Dubbed "Operation D-Day" more than 100 Miami Dade police officers, along with state and federal agents, raided 50 grow houses across the county.

During the day long blitz, officers arrested 49 people and confiscated more than 2-thousand marijuana plants along with 17-hundred pounds of marijuana which had a street value of nearly $7-million.

They also confiscated 8 firearms, a bullet proof vest and $113,600 in cash.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Miami Dade has the highest number of "grow houses" in the state; so many are popping up across the state that agents have had to double the number of raids they conduct each year.

In 2007, federal and state agents along with local law enforcement raided one thousand suspected "grow houses"; the year before that only 510 drug houses were found.

I'm not sure how much that operation cost, but it's nice to know violent crime and other non-violent crime in Miami is so low that police have little else to do besides raid homes growing weed. And real drug use such as cocaine and methamphetamines, not to mention prescription drug abuse, are on the back burner in importance. And $113,000 in cash counts for something!

No raid is complete without bragging about the "street value" of the "drugs" which are seized. The street value is only that high because the weeds are illegal and growers are constantly under threat of raids. The actual value of 2,100 marijuana plants would be a mere fraction of that. But it makes for some real sensational news reporting. As the reporter in the WFOR clip says, "seven..MILLION..dollars." Whooo-hooo!

WFOR Miami news video.

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