From: mwj@beta.lanl.gov (William Johnson)
Subject: Re: Encountering contraband in the backcountry
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 15:41:13 GMT

In article <1aj76hINNp3o@moe.ksu.ksu.edu> diverson@phys.ksu.edu (David Iverson) writes:
>In <1992Oct2.233521.26251@newshost.lanl.gov> mwj@beta.lanl.gov (William Johnson) writes:
>
>>where I would tread *very* carefully, and would expect her to do likewise,
>>because it is a notorious "drop zone" for duty-free shipments of interesting
>>imported alkaloids.  Another place (Dale Redd and I swapped notes on this one
>
>
>Hey, this really got me thinking.  From prime-time news shows, news-paper
>articles, jungian group conciousness or whatever, I've got this weird
>impression of backcountry marijuana patches, coca plantations, etc... that
>supposedly litter the American backcountry that are defended by booby-traps,
>men with machine-guns, etc...

It doesn't have to be that melodramatic.  The area where I had one of my
mildly scary encounters (with Feds, not with "obvious" bad guys; I was doing
some geological field work rather than hiking/backpacking _per se_) is in the
"badlands" of western New Mexico, where non-standard farming is about as
likely to be successful as it would on Mars.  Its remoteness, however, does
make it suitable terrain for little airplanes that drop below the mesa tops
and kick bundles of stuff out the door, then go on.  Ever read Tony
Hillerman's novel "The Dark Wind," or seen the movie?  (Can't speak to the
movie, but the book is superb.)  That's the kind of country, and the kind of
encounter that one can potentially have.  The possibility is real, though the
likelihood is slight.

What makes an encounter like that a little unsettling is that it does *not*
involve stumbling into a "backcountry marijuana patch," but rather into a
situation that is dynamic both in time and in space.  It is not a matter of
you finding the bad guys, or their stash; *they* may find *you*, in the
course of making sure the coast is clear.  Those encounters can go badly
indeed, as we were told by the Feds (who turned out to be reasonable enough
people once they were convinced we weren't up to anything wrong; it was the
part about convincing them that was a little scary).

Understand, I don't live in terror of running into drug runners whenever I go
into that area.  But knowledge that the possibility exists does cause me to
modify my behavior somewhat when there.

>A related phenomenon would be Covert Government listening posts, transmitter
>stations.  But they're pretty well documented.  And I've actually run across
>one or two antenna's coming out of small concrete buildings, surrounded by
>high fences and razor-wire.  Could be Forest Service or CIA, who knows.  But
>what about this drug thing?

At least around here, sites like that are not too unusual (though their
purpose is typically more benign than "Covert Government listening posts"),
and they're certainly not any big deal.  You see a building surrounded by
razor wire, you just don't climb over the razor wire and go inside, right?
Things like that don't bother me at all.  'Course, the fact that I work *at*
one of those sites surrounded by razor wire may have something to do with
that! :-)

-- 
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Newsgroups: rec.backcountry