About this episode
This episode explores the conflict between cartel growers and game wardens in California's wilderness, highlighting environmental and societal impacts.
Between 4,000 and 6,000 cartel trespass growers take to the woods of California every year. They arrive armed, they stay for months, and they are ready to defend their cash crop at any cost. They divert waterways, deploy pesticides and fertilizers so toxic they were banned by the EPA over a decade ago, and leave behind environmental disasters that may take generations to repair. And they do all of this not in some remote foreign country — but in America's own backyard, sometimes within miles of population centers. In this episode of The Hidden Third, Mariana sits down with Nores to pull back the curtain on this largely invisible conflict — one that sits squarely at the intersection of drug trafficking, environmental destruction, cartel violence, and wilderness law enforcement. Nores walks Mariana through the dangerous operations his team ran deep in the backcountry, the shootouts they survived, and the environmental toll of an illegal industry that generates billions in black market revenue every year. He also explains why marijuana legalization did nothing to stop the cartels — and why the black market is still booming. If you've ever hiked a California trail, camped in a…
People in this episode
Host: Mariana van Zeller
Guest: Nores
Topics covered
- cartel violence
- environmental destruction
- drug trafficking
- wilderness law enforcement
- illegal marijuana cultivation
Keywords
- cartel
- California
- environmental disaster
- illegal marijuana
- drug trafficking
- wilderness law enforcement
- Nores
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: EPA
Places: California
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