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marijuana

NEWS: Narcotic cops say Tucson’s gone to pot

You may be living next to a stash house and not know it.

With a record 1.2 million pounds of marijuana confiscated in Arizona from Oct. 1, 2006, to Sept. 30 – nearly half of it in Pima County – Tucson has developed a thriving business as a distribution hub.

The area is a way station where marijuana is stashed until it is moved to its ultimate destination, often on the East Coast.

“It’s just a major, major stash house area,” Counter Narcotics Alliance Sgt. Helen Hritz said of the Tucson area. “There can be 11,000 pounds in one house.”

The alliance is made up of local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Smuggling has also become more constant, with no major spike in activity during harvest season and no lulls in between, Hritz said. The only difference harvest season makes is that the buds are fresher.

“There’s no break in the action anymore,” she said. “It’s no longer seasonal. It’s very much flowing year-round.”

One of the Sheriff Department’s recent seizures, on Oct. 22, included 11,000 pounds discovered in a home in the 1000 block of East Orange Grove Road.

One of the largest single busts in the history of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department was 32,000 pounds – that’s 16 tons – found in a house in the 11000 block of East Speedway Boulevard in 1984.

Stash houses are not confined to downtrodden neighborhoods. They can be found throughout the city and county, Tucson police Sgt. Mark Robinson said. He said they are almost always rental homes.

He said those running stash houses tend to be transient types because if they don’t own the house, it is not seized by authorities.

“They have nothing to lose,” Robinson said, “except their load.”

Even if the drug does not stick around the house for long, its temporary presence can make for some perilous living.

Robinson said stash houses can be dangerous for neighborhoods because they become the target for home invasions by drug dealers or other criminals.

“They very often invade the wrong house,” Robinson said. “Innocent people often become the victims.”

He said the extreme level of violence of the invasions, coupled with high-powered weapons, can lead to hazardous conditions.

“They often have assault rifles,” Robinson said. “The only thing that can stop that ammunition is a brick. It can go through wood frame, windows, doors.”

Other drug smuggling activity can lead to high-speed chases when suspects flee the police, another situation that puts innocents at risk.

The Tucson area is especially suitedfor stash houses because of its network of roadways, Hritz said. In addition to a maze of backroads, two major interstates help smugglers.

Interstate 19 makes a beeline from Mexico directly to Tucson. Midvale Park, an area just west of I-19 and north of Valencia Road, was riddled with stash houses, home invasions and drug-induced violence until residents formed a watch group and took back their neighborhood last year, Robinson said.

Interstate 10 stretches from the Pacific Ocean to Jacksonville, Fla., and connects with a series of northbound routes along the way.

Arizona is a major drug-smuggling corridor for many of the same reasons it is the nation’s busiest corridor for illegal immigration. Wide-open areas, rugged terrain and decoy loads give smugglers the openings they need to get drugs through the desert.

Even much of Florida’s marijuana smuggling, which had its heyday in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has moved to southern Arizona.

“We had well-established routes, not necessarily for drugs, but for human smuggling,” said Counter Narcotics Alliance Sgt. Ramon Delatorre. “It wasn’t like they had to make a new route. Now there is smuggling of undocumented aliens and narcotics at the same time.”

Of the illegal drugs shuttled through the desert, marijuana is king.

“It’s the largest type of narcotic we see and seize,” Hritz said. “In the desert areas they blaze their own trails, carry the bundles for miles and miles.”

The desert is also a place brimming with Mexican drug cartels.

Now allied with Colombian cartels, Mexican smuggling rings rake in enough cash to purchase superior weaponry, bribe police or hire well-trained Mexican army deserters.

Mexican cartels earned an estimated $8 billion to $23 billion from U.S. drug sales in 2005 and run street distribution gangs in “almost every region of the United States,” the Government Accountability Office reported.

“The only thing that holds the cartels back is their imagination,” said Ramona Sanchez, Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman.

Drug smugglers in Arizona have been found carrying assault rifles or shoulder-fired rocket launchers.

When the National Guard built steel vehicle barriers on the Tohono O’odham Nation, smugglers built a ramp to drive over them.

Also, numerous tunnels have been dug under border fences to get drugs to the U.S. side.

In addition to the wide range of smuggling operations and the year-round availability of pot, the increase in pot seizures can also be attributed to an increase in law-enforcement manpower, said Border Patrol Agent Sean King.

He said the Border Patrol confiscated 305,390 pounds of marijuana in fiscal year 2002 in southern Arizona, when 1,800 agents guarded the border.

In the first 11 months of fiscal 2007, the Border Patrol, now expanded to 2,900 agents in southern Arizona, seized 754,298 pounds

A recent series of busts over a four-day period netted Border Patrol agents more than 9,000 pounds of marijuana.

The largest haul in that series included nearly 3,000 pounds found in two stolen vehicles abandoned after an off-road pursuit on the Tohono O’odham Nation on Nov. 12.

“There’s a lot more area we can cover,” King said. “In the past, we could cover the major smuggling routes. Now we can cover all the major routes and a lot of other routes.”

In cities, one of the best ways to protect a neighborhood is to take part in a neighborhood watch, Robinson said.

“You should know your neighbors,” he said. “You never know who’s living next door.”

———

THE NUMBERS

Marijuana seizures are up, but how much? Finding figures that give the big picture is tricky. Federal and state agencies have different fiscal years, and many agencies make seizures. A sampling:

High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which covers the border and Colorado River counties:
2007*: 1.2 million pounds

2006: 885,573 pounds

2005: 891,280 pounds

Pima County totals:

2007: 534,035 pounds

Counter Narcotics Alliance: Pima County totals:
2007*: 160,948 pounds

2006: 138,076 pounds

2005: 95,687 pounds

2004: 123,589 pounds

U.S. Border Patrol, Tucson sector totals:
2007*: 754,298 pounds

2006: 616,534 pounds

2005: 488,760 pounds

2004: 446,757 pounds

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, statewide totals:
2007: 72,526 pounds

2006: 47,709 pounds

2005: 54,710 pounds

2004: 61,503 pounds

———

Arizona Republic reporter Sean Holstege contributed to this article. *HIDTA collects information from federal, state and local agencies. All numbers are for federal fiscal years from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. Past data for Pima County was not immediately available. *Through first 11 months of county’s fiscal year, which ended June 30 *Through first 11 months of the federal fiscal year.

__

Award winner: This article won third place for public safety reporting from the Arizona Press Club.

This article originally appeared in the Nov. 21, 2007, issue of the Tucson Citizen newspaper.

Filed Under: news and features, writing Tagged With: drug smuggling tucson, marijuana, rynski news, southwest drug corridor

Zombie classes, buying pot from the sheriff and more – Rynski radio – UPDATE with playlist, download

Zombies are making their way into classrooms. No, we’re not talking about some of the students, but rather a fun-filled class offered at one East Coast university.

Need a ride?/Ryn Gargulinski

That story and more are up this week on Rynski’s Shattered Reality Internet radio show at Party934.com.

Next show is Wednesday, Sept. 8 (today!) and every Wednesday on Party934.com. Showtime is noon in Arizona, 3 p.m. EST.

Party934.com is an online radio alternative for listeners sick of stations that play one song followed by 500 commercials.

In addition to our host of funky stories, this week’s musical line-up includes our weekly polka fix and songs that mention modes of transportation – from airplanes to choo choo trains with cars careening in between.

Thank you! to the folks move who offered such moving song suggestions.

Requests for future shows welcome; please leave them below.

What: Rynski’s Shattered Reality Internet radio show
When
: Every Wednesday for one hour
Time: Noon in Arizona, 3 p.m. EST
Where: www.party934.com

UPDATE with playlist and download

Missed the show? CLICK HERE to download

Playlist for Rynski’s Shattered Reality 09/08:

Bloodrock – DOA (RadMax in AZ)

Aerosmith – Train Kept A Rollin’ (Leslie in MI)

Neco Case – Train from Kansas City (Tom in AZ)

Slavko Avsenik – Grand Prix Polka (polka always for parents)

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Proud Mary (Leslie in TX)

Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (Walt in TX)

Mott the Hoople – Drivin’ Sister (Alan in Kent, WA)

Gary Newman – Cars (Marlowe in MI)

Commander Cody – Hot Rod Lincoln (Kathy in undisclosed location)

Tragically Hip – Locked in the Trunk of a Car (Beezel)

Janis Joplin – Mercedes Benz (for the heck of it)

Steve Miller Band – Jet Airliner (Walt in TX, Marlowe in MI)

Gladys Knight and the Pips – Midnight to Georgia (Linda in UK, Marcia in MI)

One more update: By popular request, MODES of TRANSPORTATION will be the theme once again next week. We can’t do a transportation song theme without playing the The Doors’ Moonlight Drive, after all.

What do you think?

What was your favorite college class?

Did it involve zombies?

Filed Under: blogski, life, radio, radio teasers Tagged With: cool, funky, internet radio, marijuana, party 934 arizona, party 934 tucson, party934.com, radio rynski, radio tucson, ryn gargulinski, ryn gargulinski radio show, rynski, rynski shattered reality, rynski's shattered reality, twisted, weird, zombies

Woodstock tribute ’09: No naked hippies, but plenty of music

Woodstock is just one more example of why some of us were born too late.

But even if we missed the amazing three-day fest in 1969, we can pay tribute to it 40 years later with the KXCI Woodstock Tribute Concert at the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Aug. 15.

Couple on the scene/AP file photo
Couple on the scene/AP file photo

Sure, the Tucson tribute may not include thousands of naked hippies rollicking in mud, but we can also bet there will be no births, deaths, or shots fired in the air by an irate farmer upset by all the noise.

Can’t say if there will be any drug arrests or bad acid trips, however.

Tickets are on sale now at Rialto Theatre. All proceeds go to support our favorite local station – “real people, real music” – 91.3 FM KXCI Community Radio.

What: KXCI Woodstock Tribute Concert
When: Aug. 15, doors open 4 p.m., show starts at 5 p.m.
Where: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St; 740-1000
Tickets: $11 gen. admission, $16 reserved balcony
Free for 12 and under with paying adult. Fees may apply.
Rialto box office open noon to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday

We already have a slate of confirmed performers, although KXCI Director Randy Peterson said, “We are not saying who is covering who – or even who is covering The Who.”

Confirmed artists:
Al Perry; Andrew Collberg; Lovemound; The Wayback Machine; Cathy Rivers; Loveland; Leila Lopez & Courtney Robbins; The Tryst; Michael P.; Jo Wilkinson and Top Dead Center.

Were these people there?/Photo of photo in Arivaca coffee shop by Ryn Gargulinski
Were these people there?/Photo of photo in Arivaca coffee shop by Ryn Gargulinski

To get you in the mood, here are some fun facts on Woodstock by the numbers:

The groovy:

2 – Babies born at the festival
31 – Musical acts scheduled for main stage
51 – Caldrons of rice-carrot-raisin combo made for Sunday morning breakfast at Hog Farm Free Kitchen
60,000 – People expected to attend
315,000 – People who never made it there but tried
400,000 – People who attended

The grungy:

10 – Shots fired in air by farmer disgruntled by all the ruckus
80 – Lawsuits filed following the festival
90 – Percent of attendees who smoked weed
133 – Arrests on narcotic and other drug charges
400 – Bad acid trips
600 – Portable toilets

800+ – Cops – includes 150 volunteer cops; 346 off-duty NYC police hired at $50/each per day, 100 local sheriffs and hundreds of state troopers and deputies from 12 counties

10 million – number of yards of denim and striped T-shirt material in the audience (it did not specify if this was on their bodies or off)

The ugly:

1 – Case of pneumonia
1 – Diabetic coma
3 – Tracheotomies performed on site
3 – Deaths: one heroin overdose, one ruptured appendix and one person run over by a tractor. Ouch.
4 – Miscarriages

Woodstock price list:

$1 – hotdog
$4 – hit of acid or mescaline
$6.50 – advance price of single day ticket ($8 at gate)
$15 – ounce of marijuana
$18 – advance price of three-day ticket ($24 at gate)

Source: Woodstock69.com

wb-logolil15

Were you at the original Woodstock?

Did you give birth, get arrested?

Even if you weren’t there, what performer is your favorite?

When folks even mention Woodstock,does Country Joe and the Fish run through your head?

Have you been to any Woodstock tributes in the past, like the version in Rome, N.Y., in 1999 that ended up full of fire, smoke and feces?

Read a Tucsonan’s version of hippiedom on Retroflections blog.

Filed Under: art blogski, blogski, life, music, odd pueblo Tagged With: 1969, acid, Al Perry, Andrew Collberg, art, Cathy Rivers, concert, cool, danger, drugs, environment, Jo Wilkinson and Top Dead Center, kooky, KXCI, Leila Lopez & Courtney Robbins, Loveland, Lovemound, lsd, marijuana, Michael P., mud, naked, naked hippies, nude, odd, randy peterson, rialto theatre, rynski, The Tryst, The Wayback Machine, tribute, twisted, weird, whimsical, woodstock

Ryn: Mules and fools wanted for drug careers

Anyone looking for a career that is exciting, creative and full of surprises can find it right here in southern Arizona.

You can go into drug smuggling.

Drug dog Becky sits atop the 133 pounds of marijuana she sniffed out/AZDPS photo
Drug dog Becky sits atop the 133 pounds of marijuana she sniffed out during a bust in March/AZDPS photo

This lucrative and enticing opportunity will never have you hunkered over a cramped computer for hours on end.

Nor will you be subjected to excruciating board meetings, layoffs due to the recession or those horrible dress code things that always got me in trouble at the insurance office on Madison Avenue.

You make your own hours, wear what you will and earn enough cash to buy fancy sharkskin suits and machine guns.

In a bustling week starting June 5, the Arizona Department of Public Safety seized more than $830,000 in suspected drug cash; 35 pounds of cocaine; three pounds of methamphetamine; and, with the help of some other agencies, 660 pounds of marijuana.

One caveat, of course, is you cannot get caught.

But hauls similar to those could be yours if you use some ingenuity.

All types of strange places have been used for drug smuggling, so you need to come up with something new.

Drugs stuffed in the dashboard, car seats and fuel tanks are old hat. So are drugs stuffed in old hats, wheel wells and vehicle trunks, engines and speakers.

One that could have been ingenuous was foiled because the smuggler got carried away.

A man with a tractor-trailer full of watermelon was crossing the border earlier this month with cocaine stuffed in a very creative place.

No, not in the watermelon. Drugs stuffed in foodstuff is also passé and obvious.

He thought of jamming cocaine into a fire extinguisher. The only problem was, he thought it such a grand idea that he tried to haul seven fire extinguishers through U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Since watermelon are not known for being particularly flammable, border patrol officers decided to have the drug dog check out these fire extinguishers to see what the deal was.

The deal for the watermelon dude will now most likely be jail time. And he doesn’t even get to keep the watermelon.

Another spot that had lots of potential for drug stuffing is dead bodies. The corpse’s stomach can be hallowed out and made into a particularly clever hiding space where not many people would want to search.

In another tale that may or may not be true, a mother crosses the border cradling her baby in her arms. An agent, however, notes the baby doesn’t look too well and asks to take a closer peek. The mom runs off, accidentally dropping the child, who is found to have been brutally murdered and gutted so his insides could be stuffed with drugs.

While this tale may seem far-fetched, similar circumstances have been used to smuggle drugs inside the living.

Balloons, small baggies or condoms are stuffed with drugs and swallowed or crammed in bodily orifices.

Several problems have popped up from using drug balloons. Some start clogging intestines or other places and need to be surgically removed.

Still others begin to leak and the person ends up flipping out or dying from a massive drug overdose.

We never said this career was without its dangers. Otherwise, everyone would be doing it.

In addition to dead babies and a fatal drug overdose, an even greater danger lurks in the land of smugglers.

The drug-sniffing dog. These canines are trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and anything else that makes you high, stoned, spaced-out or is illegal to carry across the border.

Even a juicy T-bone won’t deter these pooches from their mission. Your only hope is not to get them called over in your general direction.

So be frugal with those fire extinguishers.

And be careful. This is not a job for sissies, although it may be a job for idiots. But with all the busts, murders and deaths, at least you know it’s a field where there will always be new openings.

Ryn Gargulinski is an artist, poet and TucsonCitizen.com Ryngmaster who never tried to smuggle drugs but once smuggled her pet rat on an airplane. Listen to a preview of her column at 8:10 a.m. Thursdays on KLPX 96.1 FM. Listen to her webcast at 4 p.m. Fridays at www.Party934.com. Her column appears every Friday on Rynski’s Blogski. E-mail rynski@tucsoncitrizen.com

Filed Under: blogski, crime, danger, death, gross stuff, health, police, fire, law, stupidity Tagged With: arizona department of public safety, AZDPS, border patrol, canine, career, cocaine, coke, corpse, dead bodies, DPS, drug dogs, drugs, heroin, illegal, jobs, marijuana, meth, methamphetamine, narcotics, pot, smuggling, watermelon, weed

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