Spring Break Warnings about Cartels? They're now in Utah

In one way, Utah might rank as a state most affected by Mexico's drug cartels, not border states such as Arizona and Texas.

This because Utah has one of the greatest percentages of land owned by the federal government.

Pick up Wednesday's Deseret News, if you haven't thrown it away yet, and read the article titled, "Watch out for marijuana grows," telling how Mexican drug cartels are hiding large marijuana farms on Utah's public lands.

The more public land a state has, the more likely the cartels will want to farm there.

The cartels are not satisfied with trafficking drugs across the border. Being reasonably smart, they realize raising marijuana in the U.S. not only places their product closer to its market, but also sidesteps the problem of smuggling it across the border.

Southern Utah is seen as the part of this state where the cartels are most likely to raise their marijuana. I don't know for sure, but wonder if that is partly because of the interstate highways I-15 and I-70.

So, with good growing conditions, the availability of federal land and good traffic routes, Southern Utah is likely a plum growing location for the cartels.

I read with interest in the DesNews article about how a DEA officer warns Utahns to be cautious in the back country this spring and summer. I guess the idea is, you don't want to accidentally run into the cartels if they are protecting the secrecy of their farms at all costs.

It reminded me of other travel warnings about spring breaks, of how travelers are sometimes warned of traveling into Mexico because of the cartels.

Now, those travel warnings are right here in Utah.