Mercenaries have long been used by various countries and governing bodies to ensure retaliatory success against rivals, and, to achieve political agendas.
Also referred to as a Soldier of Fortune; a mercenary is someone fighting for financial and personal gain rather than for political interests.
Today, some events have California residents wondering if mercenaries and marijuana opposition forces are being used to combat cultivation efforts and/or competition.
On a September Sunday in Laytonville, California, a 1,200-member gardening club met with the town’s sheriff to discuss community concerns.
The meeting was held in Mendocino County; one of America’s biggest cannabis cultivators. According to estimates, nearly 90% of Mendocino County residents are affiliated with the cannabis industry.
This event was the community’s opportunity to discuss enforcement policies with city officials, but some attended with an alternative-motive inquiry; some wanted to address a rumor spreading around town.
Over the 2014 summer, Mendocino County residents claimed to have seen military-outfitted men repelling from helicopters onto private, residential-cultivation property. According to statements, the men arrived in unmarked helicopters.
“They cut our plants down” – Marijuana Mercenaries on the rise?
Once boots hit the ground, they began cutting down marijuana plants in medical-pot gardens. Local residents were devastated by the raid.
Due to the unmarked helicopter and uniforms, many believe this was a marijuana mercenary-lead initiative.
It’s not uncommon for local law enforcement to conduct helicopter raids in Mendocino County.
However, the nature of this raid has the county-majority concerned. Instead of law enforcement, many believe the raid culprit to be a privately-owned security firm known as Lear Asset Management.
The confusion surrounding this raid may be easily explainable.
Out in the pot-country wildlands of California, law enforcement efforts are challenging to track, but also, rules and laws surrounding cannabis cultivation has long been contradictory.
Adding to the mayhem, state, federal, and local enforcement efforts aren’t always coordinated, and, they don’t always communicate with one another regarding grow-opposition initiatives.
If that’s not worrisome enough for residents, adding the possibility of the culprit being a faceless mercenary from an unknown employer will make it be (and it has been alarming to the thousands of cannabis farmers in the region).
Lear Asset Management was founded in 2012; “Lear” stands for (Logistical Environmental Asset Remediation).
They’ve become prominently involved within California’s cannabis culture. Lear has a staff of around fifteen employees, most of whom have military experience.
Their team is comprised of ex-U.S. Special Forces, combat veterans, and Army Forces.
Their teams fly in rented, unmarked helicopters outfitted in body armor, camouflage fatigues, and keffiyehs (a checkered scarf) worn around the neck.
Their clients are typically large landowners needing help with clearing cannabis gardens planted by trespassers. They’re also contracted to perform forest reclamation, which in some cases, is government grant-funded.
Deep in the wildlands, Lear Asset Management is commissioned to cut down illegally-grown marijuana plants and to remove environmental footprints left behind by the drug trade.
They’re also well-armed. Teams are equipped with AR-15 assault rifles in the event they encounter armed territorial watchmen.
Lear’s CEO says the firm was “NOT behind Helicopter Raid’s”
Paul Trouette, Lear Asset Management’s CEO, said the firm wasn’t behind the helicopter raids that Mendocino County residents complained of.
“We do not do any kind of vigilante, black ops, Blackwater stuff,” he stated, while also highlighting that the company is a highly-regulated, California-licensed business.
They work on privately-owned land when contracted by the property owner.
The owner isn’t a soldier or a cop; he’s Mendocino County’s “Fish and Game” commissioner. He’s also a principal founder of an organization whose efforts are devoted to preserving blacktail deer herds in the area.
According to Trouette, “security contracting has outgrown volunteer-based environmental reclamation”.
He also stated that it was essential for the firm to transition into security contracting as it was too overwhelming for private landowners to handle alone.
The firm’s roots run deep in the region cluttered with cannabis cultivation confusion.
Mendocino County’s Commander of the Major Crimes Task Force estimates half of the residents to be working in the marijuana business/economy.
Most longtime growers are now simply remnants of the return-to-the-land movement that took place in the 1960s; usually, growers harvesting within legal limits. However, dense forests and near-perfect cultivation conditions are attracting growers and cultivation operations that bring with it some dangerous elements to the city.
Mercenaries and marijuana opposition teams have become increasingly more popular in recent years.
This is because, in recent times, more and more criminal groups have begun colonizing forests throughout the county; apart of their effort to conceal grow sites.
To put the problem into perspective, in 2011, a three-week-long raid, named Operation Full Court Press, yielded over 630,000 marijuana plants in the Mendocino National Forest and surrounding areas.
The street value of these seized plants is somewhere around $1 billion.
Due to the sum of money grow operations are potentially worth, those protecting grow sites have a trend of shooting at law enforcement and even hikers. In 2011, while searching for a marijuana plot, Mendocino County’s mayor was fatally shot.
In 2012, a new experimental program was enacted that paved the way for legitimate cannabis operations to become licensed but still required to operate under county-sheriff supervision. However, due to pressure from a U.S. California attorney, the program was discontinued.
To this day, many farmers believe marijuana mercenaries are being used more and more as part of a growing effort to combat trespassed gardens.
