The dehydrated and mummified remains of four monkeys were confiscated by airport security in Boston last month.

According to a press release from United States Customs and Border Protection, a traveler arrived at Boston Logan Airport from The Democratic Republic of the Congo on January 8 of this year. An Airport security dog that goes by the name of K9 Buddey (pictured below) smelled something unusual in the traveler’s bag during routine inspections of Delta flight 225 incoming from Paris and alerted customs officials to the suspicious nature of the luggage, presumably by barking.

The traveler claimed he was only carrying dried fish in his suitcase when asked by customs, but further inspection revealed he was in possession of four dehydrated monkey carcusses. The monkeys are considered to be “bushmeat,” which is a term denoting raw or minimally processed meat from wild animals in Africa often dried, salted or smoked. This includes bats, monkeys, cane rats, antelope and other African animals, none of which are allowed entry into the United States on account of the risk of communicable disease transference.

“The potential dangers posed by bringing bushmeat into the United States are real. Bushmeat can carry germs that can cause illness, including the Ebola virus,” said Julio Caravia, local port director for Customs and Border Protection.

According to Customs and Border Protection, airport authorities immediately contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because apparently that’s the government agency tasked with regulation of mummified primate materials. The CDC reportedly told Delta Airlines to either seize and destroy the four kilograms of monkey meat or return it to France and thus, the primate mummies were marked for destruction.

Apparently a fair amount of illegal monkey meat, among other unsavory and illicit meat from Africa is routinely smuggled into the United States. One estimate from the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance proposed that roughly 15,000 pounds of illegal wildlife meat are smuggled into the U.S. every month, though this figure is very difficult to verify. 

Another report from United States Customs and Border Protection concerning illegal bushmeat smuggling into the state of Minnesota from 2022, customs officials seized over 104 pounds of bushmeat in the last week of 2021 alone.

“Just last week our agriculture specialists stopped a passenger returning from Liberia,” said Augustine Moore, Area Port Director-Minnesota. When officers asked if he had any bushmeat, he said he had “parts of a monkey; turned out it was two primate arms and primate rib material.”

In the 2022 release Customs and Border Protections attested that much like the recent mummified monkey smuggler accosted in Boston, many travelers attempting to smuggle bushmeat into the United States do so by hiding it amongst dried fish, often wrapped in multiple layers of newspaper, plastic, foil and tape. Travelers would often mark fish on customs forms even when specifically asked about bushmeat.

“The intermingling of fish and bushmeat in the same package is common,” Chief Agriculture Specialist Lauren Lewis said in 2022. 

Customs said in the same release that they had a big problem at the time with travelers coming in with bushmeat from Liberia specifically. A private investigator took reporters from ABC news to an open air market in New York in 2009 where cane rat meat was being sold for $20/pound, but with time passed and post-COVID inflation it presumably costs much more in 2024 though I could was not able to verify current bushmeat prices with any reputable source.

“Minnesota’s CBP agriculture specialists are focused on their mission to prevent entry of prohibited items from entering into the United States,” said LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, Director, Field Operations-Chicago in 2022. “The sheer volume of bushmeat our specialist[s] intercept clearly shows how they play a critical role in preventing diseases from entering the United States.”

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A Humboldt County cannabis grower will pay at least $750,000 to settle a dispute with state water and wildlife agencies over alleged environmental violations at a 435-acre cultivation site in California’s famed Emerald Triangle. In the settlement agreement, licensed weed grower Joshua Sweet and his companies, The Hills LLC and Shadow Light Ranch LLC, admitted to violations of state water regulations over a period of several years. 

“It is critical for all cannabis cultivators to be environmentally responsible and protect California’s water supply and water quality,” Taro Murano, program manager for the State Water Board’s Division of Water Rights cannabis enforcement section, said in a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). “Sweet chose to operate his business while ignoring regulations designed to protect the environment. He must now remediate the environmental damage he caused and pay a significant penalty. No one should get a business advantage by ignoring the law and harming the environment.”

The settlement calls for Sweet to pay $1.75 million for the violations, which include illegally diverting and collecting water from unnamed tributaries of the South Fork Eel River that cross the property. According to the settlement terms, $1 million of the fine was suspended, but Sweet will be responsible for paying the additional $1 million if remediations to the property are not completed as agreed.

Multiple Environmental Violations at Cultivation Site

The settlement cites several violations, including building an unpermitted pond on a waterway to collect water for irrigating cannabis plants. Other violations include the destruction of wetland habitats and stream channels, converting oak woodland to cannabis cultivation and failure to work with state and local officials to satisfy permitting requirements.

Yvonne West, director of the State Water Resources Control Board’s office of enforcement, said that Sweet and his companies did not have the authority to divert water on the property and use it for cannabis cultivation. According to an email from the water board to nonprofit news outlet CalMatters, Sweet took about 16.2 acre-feet of water, approximately enough to supply about 49 households for a year, for a total of three ponds on the property between 2017 and 2020.

“This case represents years of hard work by dedicated staff to remediate damage to streambed channels, wetland habitat and oak woodlands,” said Nathaniel Arnold, acting chief of law enforcement for CDFW. “The settlement also speaks volumes to the egregious nature of this case and should send a strong message to those working outside of state regulations to cultivate cannabis. Our natural resources deserve to be respected.”

Included in the settlement agreement is a $500,000 payment for water rights violations, a record penalty for such a violation in the state of California. The defendants are also required to remove unpermitted ponds and restore wetlands and waterways as part of the agreement.

Grower Says Penalty Is Unfair

Sweet believes that the fines are unfair and excessive and that the case could have been handled differently.

“If the full penalty and remediation costs were due today it would take everything I own,” Sweet said in a statement to CalMatters.

“Although I will follow through with my end of the settlement, I do not believe this is fair or just, and I believe I have already suffered way too much,” Sweet said in the emailed statement. 

“Even during our court-mandated settlement conference, they were asked why they would go after a small independent businessman with these type of enormous fines usually reserved for huge corporations that destroy ecosystems,” he added.

But state and local officials defended the settlement, saying it is justified by the actions taken at the property.

“The ordered penalties are modest given the scope of damage, the length of time the site has been left unremediated and considering the unjust enrichment or benefit to Mr. Sweet from running a business for several years without going through the necessary permitting process,” said Jeremy Valverde, assistant chief counsel at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, in a statement emailed to CalMatters.

Joshua Curtis, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s assistant executive officer, said that Sweet and his businesses “for years resisted our attempts to cooperatively work on restoration and recovery of those resources, leaving formal enforcement as our only option.”

“This was an ongoing use by Mr. Sweet and the penalties are over an approximately four-year period for unauthorized diversion and use of water to support cultivation,” said West of the water board. “Five hundred dollars a day, multiple violations over a four-year period, does really add up. And then again we did have the additional types of violations at play here as well.”

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On Jan. 16, the California Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce (UCETF) released its first annual report of money, illegal cannabis plants/products, and firearms obtained in its seizure operations last year.

In total for 2023, which was the UCETF’s first full year of operation, the task force stated that it has seized more than $312 million in illegal cannabis. Additionally, it reported that it also seized 189,854.02 pounds of cannabis, eradicated 317,834 cannabis plants, served 188 search warrants, seized 119 firearms, and seized $223,809 of money on-site.

According to the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) Director Nicole Elliot, the UCETF has made some serious progress in eliminating illegal operations. “California is effectively decreasing the illegal cannabis market by leveraging the strengths and knowledge of over 20 state agencies and departments alongside our local and federal partners. The UCETF’s progress in 2023 reflects California’s ongoing commitment to disrupting and dismantling illegal cannabis activity,” said Elliott. “I look forward to working with all our partners in 2024 to build on this progress.”

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham provided a statement detailing the importance of eliminating illegal cannabis cultivation and processing operations. “Since its inception in late 2022, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce has hit the ground running with year-round operations that spanned from the Oregon state line all the way down to San Diego,” Bonham said. “We’ve sent a strong message that illegal operations that harm our natural resources, threaten the safety of workers, and put consumer health at risk have no place in California. While there is more work to be done, we made progress last year and I look forward to going further alongside our county, state, and federal partners.”

The UCETF was created when Gov. Gavin Newsom called for the creation of a task force in June 2022, through a combined effort of the DCC, CDFW, and Homeland Security Division of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. By October 2022, the UCETF immediately took action, and early totals showed that it destroyed 11,260 illegal cannabis plants and 5,237 pounds of flower, with a combined total of $15 million. “California is taking immediate and aggressive action to stop illegal cannabis and strengthen the burgeoning legal market throughout the state,” said Newsom. “By shutting down illegal grow sites and applying serious consequences to offenders, we are working to curtail the criminal organizations that are undercutting the regulated cannabis market in California.”

The task force’s Q4 numbers include $22,294,571 worth of cannabis products seized (with 13,393.65 pounds of product), 20,320 pounds of cannabis seized, served 24 search warrants, seized 26 firearms, and seized $35,195 in cash during on-site warrant investigations.

In a breakdown by county, the UCETF seized the most cannabis in Alameda County ($77,828,338.50), followed by Siskiyou County ($70,747,875), Mendocino County ($48,073,113), Los Angeles County ($28,317,139.69), and Kern County ($21,578,438).

Also in October 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), had seized and destroyed more than one million cannabis plants that year across 22 counties. “The illicit marketplace outweighs the legal marketplace,” Bonta said. “It’s upside down and our goal is complete eradication of the illegal market.”

He also announced that a campaign called the Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis (EPIC) would help target illegal cannabis labor and environmental violations as well. “The California Department of Justice’s CAMP task force works tirelessly each year to eradicate illegal grows and reclaim our public lands, but shutting down these grows is no longer enough,” Bonta explained. “With the transition to EPIC, we’re taking the next step and building out our efforts to address the environmental and economic harms and labor exploitation associated with this underground market.”

In 2023, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 turned 50 years old. As the effort continues to try to preserve the nation’s many native creatures, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) have begun to put the spotlight on how illegal cannabis operations are harming the lives and environments of endangered animals. The California Spotted Owl is one such creature. “Management or cleanup activities that remove toxicants and other chemicals from trespass cannabis cultivation sites in California spotted owl habitat,” FWS explained last year. “Cleanup of these sites may involve activities that may cause localized, short-term disturbance to California spotted owls, as well as require limited removal of some habitat structures valuable to California spotted owls (e.g., hazard trees that may be a suitable nest site).”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife also announces annual data collected from discovering and eradicating illegal cannabis operations in an effort to preserve waterways and natural animal habitats. This includes the preservation of a wide variety of species, such as southern torrent salamanders, coastal tailed frogs, steelhead and coho salmon, which rely on access to clear, cold water that is often polluted or diverted to illegal cannabis cultivation sites.

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A Federal Register notice published on Feb. 23 explains how illegal cannabis grows in California are harmful to spotted owls, which are native to California. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) agency proposed the addition of two distinct population segments (DPS) of California Spotted Owl to be added to the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (which turns 50 years old in 2023). This includes a Coastal-Southern California DPS, which FWS proposes to be listed as endangered, and the Sierra Nevada DPS, which FWS proposes to be listed as threatened.

Among the FWS’s recommendations to help preserve the habitat of these particular spotted owls, FWS calls for action to reduce risk of wildfires (such as prescribed burns), target habitat management and restoration to help conserve the species, and improved cleanup after illegal cannabis grows.

“Management or cleanup activities that remove toxicants and other chemicals from trespass cannabis cultivation sites in California spotted owl habitat,” FWS wrote. “Cleanup of these sites may involve activities that may cause localized, short-term disturbance to California spotted owls, as well as require limited removal of some habitat structures valuable to California spotted owls (e.g., hazard trees that may be a suitable nest site).”

The FWS analyzed potential threats to these owls, such as parasites caused by climate change, extreme weather events, and more. In one scenario, the agency addressed the ongoing issue with high cannabis cultivator fees. “There will likely continue to be an increase in demand for marijuana, which may increase illegal grow sites using anticoagulant rodenticides in California if the costs of buying land and acquiring/maintaining permits to legalize a grow operation are too high,” the agency wrote.

Furthermore, the agency notes that anticoagulant rodenticide has increased with the rise in illegal cannabis operations. “A comparison of marijuana cultivation site likelihood with northern spotted owl suitable habitat found almost 50 percent overlap between the two,” the agency stated. “Although the number of illegal marijuana growing operations within the California spotted owl’s range is unknown, considering the number of illegal marijuana growing operations found throughout the State, there are likely thousands within the California spotted owl’s range.”

Law enforcement is regularly investigating and shutting down illegal cannabis grows, but FWS notes that their job is only to shut down the operation. “… there is currently no standardized clean-up protocol and a limited amount of funding to ensure removal of all rodenticides.”

Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office Field Supervisor Michael Fris is hopeful that these FWS recommendations will help restore this population of owls. “Our goal is to help the California spotted owl recover across its range,” said Fris. “Ongoing collaboration with a number of partners will result in positive conservation gains and put this species on the road to recovery.”

The impact of illegal cannabis grows has negatively affected many other species and habitats as well. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has previously targeted illegal grows during the summer growing season, both in 2022 as well as in 2021. Specifically, the waterways which countless animals rely on, such as salamanders, frogs, and salmon, have been threatened both due to drought, as well as illegal cannabis growers often divert water to grow their crops.

Cannabis grows are illegally using water and polluting groundwater in areas like San Bernardino County too. Efforts have been made to counter the water being taken and contaminated, according to Assemblymember Tom Lackey, who is a resident in the southern California high desert. “To any of those who are engaged in the illicit grows: I want you to know there’s a collective effort, and we’re coming after you,” Lackey said. “You come after a very sacred thing: our community. You come after our desert, and you’re stealing our water. You’re poisoning our land, and enough is enough.”

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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and State Water Resource Board (SWRCB) announced in a press release on July 1 that it would be collectively authorizing enforcement teams for the 2022 cannabis growing season. This is an annual announcement, as the CDFW also announced its preparation for the 2021 growing season in July last year.

This effort is funded by Proposition 64 which enables these government agencies to focus on protecting “priority watersheds and areas with sensitive habitat and/or threatened or endangered species.” The agencies will work with local county, state, and federal groups to ensure enforcement is properly handled.

“The environmental impacts of illegal cannabis operations can last decades and cause irreparable harm to our natural resources,” said CDFW Deputy Director and Chief of the Law Enforcement Division David Bess. “Those not complying with state laws and disregarding the environmental impacts associated with illegal cultivation practices will be subject to enforcement actions.”

The water streams of California, and the wildlife that depends on them, suffer when illegal cannabis grow operations divert water. “Tributary streams are often critical in providing clear, cold water for larger waterways,” the press release states. “Many sensitive aquatic species such as southern torrent salamanders, coastal tailed frogs, steelhead and coho salmon rely on these tributaries in the late summer months to maintain water quality and temperatures necessary for survival.”

Furthermore, the health of these streams directly affects the “physical, biological, and chemical impact” of the entire local area, which is home to countless creatures whose habitat needs to be maintained.

The drought in California has hit a historic low once again, making it imperative to protect these waterways. “Complying with the state’s cannabis regulations is even more critical in drought conditions when limited water supply is available and water quality impacts are magnified,” said State Water Resources Control Board Office of Enforcement Director Yvonne West. “I am proud to work with so many individuals in the cannabis community dedicated to regulated and environmentally conscientious cultivation. The State Water Board is committed to taking enforcement action against those who harm our precious water resources.”

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley also provided a statement, addressing the need for enforcement of illegal cannabis growing operations. “My office is committed to criminal and civil enforcement to protect the environment and public safety,” said Dudley. “Environmental harms from cannabis cultivation can be severe and long-term, including exposure to dangerous pesticides, water quality degradation, and wildlife injury. Moreover, cultivators who violate the law should not have an unfair competitive advantage over lawful cultivators who expend time and resources to stay in compliance. My office will continue to collaborate with our local and state agency partners to ensure compliance with the law.”

Other California counties, such as San Bernardino, are also supporting legislation aimed at both protecting groundwater as well as eliminating illegal grows. The County sponsored Assembly Bill 2728 and Senate Bill 1426, which would implement fines for violations. According to researchers, cannabis plants (depending on their stage of growth) could need up to six gallons of water per day during the growing season, which spans June through October.

At a press conference in May, Assemblymember Tom Lackey addressed illegal cannabis growers who are polluting local water reserves. “To any of those who are engaged in the illicit grows: I want you to know there’s a collective effort, and we’re coming after you,” said Lackey. “You come after a very sacred thing: our community. You come after our desert, and you’re stealing our water. You’re poisoning our land, and enough is enough.”

Outside of the growing season, Los Angeles County has also worked on targeting illegal grows. In July 2021, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department made one of its largest seizures of illegal cannabis, which was valued at $1.2 billion.

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