Private security outfit raids Calif. pot farms
By Dylan Scott, TPM
They wear camouflaged uniforms, bearing military-style insignia. They ride helicopters over the forests of Mendocino County equipped with firearms, where they cut down illegal marijuana. But they aren’t the army. They aren’t even the police. They are Lear Asset Management, a private security firm that is attracting a lot of attention for the work it’s doing — and even perhaps some work it hasn’t done
KCBS in San Francisco described them as “mysterious men dropping from helicopters to chop down” pot plants. Rumors swirl in the area’s marijuana community about heavily armed men choppering onto their private land and cutting down their marijuana plants without identifying themselves or answering questions about who they are. Lear has become a boogeyman of sorts for a certain population in Northern California.
But they aren’t hiding. Paul Trouette, Lear Asset Management’s 55-year-old founder, spoke with TPM for more than 30 minutes earlier this week to describe what his company does and why they do it. They see themselves filling a void that law enforcement cannot. Trouette at one point invoked the Pinkertons — the private detective agency notorious for, among other things, violently busting unions and chasing Wild West outlaws — to demonstrate the historical precedent for what they’re now doing in this county of 88,000 on the edge of the California Redwoods.
“Law enforcement just doesn’t have the means to take care of it any longer,” Trouette told TPM. The 2011 murder of Fort Bragg City cCuncilman Jere Melo by an illegal trespasser tending poppy plants as Melo patrolled private land for a timber company made a big impression on Trouette, he said. Lear was incorporated the same year, and the company has worked with a nonprofit founded in Melo’s memory.
Oh perfect. A domestic Blackwater.
This is seriously WRONG! Regardless of how you feel about marijuana.
I hope they rot in hell. Before we know it they will give them drones.
I had a great time at the air show last week. Had to give kudos to the city for waiving the entry fee. Then I walked past the SLT assault vehicle exhibit. It ruined the entire day for me and my guests. They came from cities ten times or more the size of SLT. Their police departments had the sense not to request a military assault vehicle.
Why in the world are we wasting public funds on this!
pretty obvious that no one read tge rest of the story. These people are hired by private companies to patrol their land. Kind of like stores have security or other companies. Of course the would come armed as the drug growers are armed. I guess none of you feel sorry for the man who was killed because he came upon a poppy grow. POPPIES come on people no matter how you feel about MJ you surely dont condone poppy grows. I personnally think these types of large grows on other peoples property should not be accepted
It is a shame that these illegal grows on other peoples land (or on public lands) are given any air time. Often these illegal trespassing grows are found to be stealing water, using harmfull chemicals that are brought from other places where they are still used, the growers just leave their garbage onsite, they kill wildlife and poison the area, they carry weapons with the intent to do harm to anyone that stumbles onto their crop, and the growers are often not citizens. It sucks that this is a common practice in our state.
go figure, did you really read the article or are you too busy downing drugs. The article says nothing about growing illegally in the forest. Are you all for dictatorships or what. Dumas
Done it seems you also didnt completely comprehend what the article impliedeither that or you also waere smoking something. Lumber companies do own huge amounts of forest lands, this article that did state that a man was killed on private forest land when he came across a illegal poppy grow. This gave the motivation for someone to start this business, the logical customers would be lumber companies since they were mentioned in the article.
Is ‘Done’ the new CJ?