California pot trade linked to cartels leaves chemicals, dead animals
Standing atop a ridge in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Mourad Gabriel watches as the last of the morning’s fog burns off, revealing the snow-capped Trinity Alps in the distance and a rolling sea of evergreens below. In this slice of rural California, about five hours north of San Francisco, narrow two-lane roads snake between towering mountains and ancient trees. … In the mountainous expanse below, drug trafficking organizations have taken advantage of Northern California’s remote wilderness to grow cannabis in deep defiance of the state’s marijuana and environmental regulations. They’ve poisoned soil, streams and wildlife with banned pesticides, leveled countless acres of forest, ignited massive wildfires, poached billions of gallons of precious water and left nothing but death and debris in their wake.