How Uninhabited Terrain Became a Hotbed for Black Market Marijuana

SISKIYOU COUNTY, Calif.—The air is thick with the unmistakable pungent stench of cannabis plants in a massive network of illegal grow operations in a rural part of northern California, as Mount Shasta looms on the horizon. Gated-off with chain link and wire fences—some with tattered shreds of privacy screening—the properties northeast of Weed, Calif., near Montague, are a compound of ramshackle huts, old RVs, and cheaply-made greenhouses of hoops and plastic. Several spotters in vehicles patrol the dusty roads, watching for police and intruders near the site off Shasta Vista Drive. These “guards” are often armed with automatic rifles, according to Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue....