# DEA Can Track Pot Growers With Mobile Devices



## viper (Jan 29, 2010)

A US Federal court says the Drug Enforcement Administration has the right to attach mobile tracking devices to the vehicles of suspected marijuana growers.A 9th Circuit appeals court in Portland Oregon upheld a guilty verdict of marijuana manufacturing and conspiracy to manufacture against Juan Pineda-Moreno, who had appealed on grounds his constitutional rights were violated by DEA agents who attached small electronic transmitters to his SUV on multiple occasions to track his movements. 
According to court documents a DEA special agent "noticed a group of men purchasing a large quantity of fertilizer from a Home Depot" on May 28, 2007 and, "recognizing the fertilizer as a type frequently used to grow marijuana", followed Pineda-Moreno's 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee as it left the store.
In June, agents learned the men had "purchased large quantities of groceries, irrigation equipment, and deer repellant at several stores" and had traveled in Pineda-Moreno's Jeep. After learning Pineda-Moreno's address, the DEA intensified their investigation. 
"Over a four-month period, agents repeatedly monitored Pineda-Moreno's Jeep using various types of mobile tracking devices," the court's opinion papers say. "Each device was about the size of a bar of soap and had a magnet affixed to its side, allowing it to be attached to the underside of a car."
"Agents installed these devices on the underside of Pineda-Moreno's Jeep on seven different occasions. On four of these occasions, the vehicle was parked on a public street in front of Pineda-Moreno's home. On one occasion, it was located in a public parking lot. On the other two occasions, the Jeep was parked in Pineda-Moreno's driveway, a few feet from the side of his trailer. The driveway leading up to the trailer was open; agents did not observe any fence, gate, or 'No Trespassing' signs indicating that they were not to enter the property. [...] Once in place, the tracking devices recorded and logged the precise movements of the vehicle. Some of these devices permitted agents to access the information remotely, while others required them to remove the device from the vehicle and download the information directly."
On September 12, 2007, DEA agents pulled Pineda-Moreno's vehicle over after received information from one of the devices indicating he was leaving a suspected grow show. Agents said they smelled marijuana, though none was found in the vehicle or on Pineda-Moreno or his three passengers. After contacting immigration authorities, who arrested the three other men, DEA agents searched Pineda-Moreno's home and found two garbage bags full of pot.
The court ruled that Pineda-Moreno' could not show "that the agents invaded an area in which he possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy when they walked up his driveway and attached the tracking device to his vehicle. Because the agents did not invade such an area, they conducted no search, and Pineda-Moreno can assert no Fourth Amendment violation."
"Pineda-Moreno makes no claim that the agents used the tracking devices to intrude into a constitutionally protected area," Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain said in the court decision. "The only information the agents obtained from the tracking devices was a log of the locations where Pineda-Moreno's car traveled, information the agents could have obtained by following the car. Insofar as [Pineda-Moreno's] complaint appears to be simply that scientific devices such as the [tracking devices] enabled the police to be more effective in detecting crime, it simply has no constitutional foundation. We have never equated police efficiency with unconstitutionality and decline to do so now." [...] We conclude that the police did not conduct an impermissible search of Pineda-Moreno's car by monitoring its location with mobile tracking devices."

By Jeremiah Vandermeer


legal or not -- got your no tresspassing signs up people ?


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## leafminer (Jan 29, 2010)

This is just horrendous. The USA has been turned by the Bush family into something like Saudi Arabia. It reminds me of having to take elaborate precautions when buying innocent household items such as 100KG sacks of white sugar. . . in Jeddah.


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## legalize_freedom (Jan 29, 2010)

Thats why I fly where ever I go....


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## Old_SSSC_Guy (Jan 30, 2010)

they can do the same thing using OnStar in your car or tracing through your cell phone...  And using LowJack on a grow vechicle is not a "good thing".


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## gourmet (Jan 30, 2010)

The US Federal Court , charged with upholding our constitution, instead is at war with it.  I love my country but sometimes feel I am getting too old and tired to keep up the struggle.


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## PUFF MONKEY (Jan 30, 2010)

i don't have a car or a cell phone...


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## PUFF MONKEY (Jan 30, 2010)

and these tracking devices are much smaller than a bar of soap...i've held them in my hand..more like a gum drop in size running on 1 3v button cell. if i can find the one i have i'll post a pic.


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## 2Dog (Jan 30, 2010)

watch em pop u puff with a tracker on ur dirt bike...lol


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## PUFF MONKEY (Jan 30, 2010)

nope...i toke a bowl and fly anywhere i need to go.


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## spaceface (Jan 30, 2010)

.....thats scary...were not free...were dictated....


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## Jericho (Jan 30, 2010)

I honestly feel for you guys in the states. you are so restricted with so many things. im not saying nything bad about the states. just that i like the fact i live on a small island were most cops over here are to lazy to put a ticket on a car. 

We have quite a few busts over here. mostly done by the army because they have nothing better to do. Only ever heard of someone being busted maybe twice in past 15yrs for growing at home. And if your caught smoking they just give you a verbal warning.


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## greenguy (Feb 1, 2010)

LOL I live in LA and the traffic blows!!! I NEED A HELICOPTER!!!


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## DonJones (Feb 1, 2010)

I don't understand the outrage.  They did absolutely nothing that they don't do every day in nearly every law enforcement agency for many different types of crime.

Not only that, IF you missed the point, this was a case of an illegal grow by illegal aliens -pardon me undocumented immigrants illegally in the US -- on public property I believe that was obviously connected with organized crime.  These are the same people importing violence from Mexico to try to control the market place and you feel sorry for them.  I just don't understand your problem with it.  These are kind of people who need to be busted not the small time grower or user.

Just my opinion and no better than yours.

Great smoking.


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## PencilHead (Feb 1, 2010)

*According to court documents a DEA special agent "noticed a group of men purchasing a large quantity of fertilizer from a Home Depot" on May 28, 2007 and, "recognizing the fertilizer as a type frequently used to grow marijuana", followed Pineda-Moreno's 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee as it left the store.*

That's what I have a problem with--lying to begin with certainly poisons the tree the fruit came from.  That's simply the law--unless you're the Gestap..er ah... the DEA.  The story would have you believe that some random DEA agent just happened to be scoping out Depot, watching out that we don't get taken over by those dirty zoot-suiter Mexicans.  

Has Home Depot become proactive toward pot growers?  If it has, I'd certainly like to know so I could keep my business and my money away from them.

What recognized marijuana fertilizer does Depot sell?  Would that be Miracle Grow or Scotts Turf Builder?  Pu-friggin-leeeze--what utter ** these thugs come up with.  When they were in other countries beating the crap outta people and trafficng in drugs and weapons that was cool, but now the chickens have come home to roost and it ain't so fun, is it?

Wasn't it old Benny Franklin who said anyone who would give up their freedoms for security deserves neither?  Here we are, my friends, freedom's end.  And all the saber rattling in the world won't help a bit--after forcing the world to watch a couple of draft dodgers strut around and talk school yard trash for 8 years, no one's really afraid of us anymore.  They see us for the bullying, hypocritic gas-bags we are now.  

It's truly sad to witness a great nation move this rapidly toward plutocracy.  

Wow--what a rant.  Power to the peeps and all that.


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## legalize_freedom (Feb 1, 2010)

Loved the rant PH!!! and you make perfect sense in my eyes.

Zip I was only being goofy when I said that about flying everywhere.  As far as finding a place off the grid, I've been planning for yrs now, I think it's possable, but if they do find you...lol...it's illegal...imagine that.


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## AcesUp (Feb 1, 2010)

You go PH! I agree 100%.


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## Super Skunk (Feb 1, 2010)

I want to know what ferts. that are sold by home depot are "commonly" used for pot cultivation also... And please nobody take this the wrong way, but where I live a Latino buying huge quantities of fertilizer anywhere is not uncommon. I have seen some of those guys with truckloads of irrigation supplies, fertilizers, virtually all types of gardening stuff. There is something missing in this story, I would be willing to bet these dudes did alot more than buy ferts at the depot to raise a red flag. I too have thought long and hard about just kinda droppin' off the face of the earth. I have some really good friends that live down in the Southern Hemisphere, weather is really nice there they tell me. 
    I really do not think the politicians are to blame for this whole infringement of rights stuff that goes on. The people still elect these yahoos. Although I am a firm believer that if you or I are not causing harm to anyone else then we should be left to our own demise. That is just my opinion and there is a saying about opinions and a certain body orface.:hubba:  We all got one!! Hope everyone has a awesome evening.


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## legalize_freedom (Feb 1, 2010)

here here Super Skunk....I don't need a government to protect me from myself!


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