Combatting gangs and reporting all criminal activity requires vigilance

A vigilant community that keeps its eyes and ears open and reports all suspicious and criminal acts to local law enforcement can also remain a friendly, small town that welcomes strangers — at least law abiding ones — with open arms.

It is a well-known and long-documented fact that criminal gangs regularly use the nation's freeway system, especially Interstate 5, to transport drugs or weapons and export violence, taking vengeance on rival gang members or trying to take over another gang's territory as they move steadily beyond the borders of the large metropolitan areas where they already have gained a substantial foothold.

Why should rural Shasta County residents be wary?

Major Mexican and South American drug cartels are already using our sparsely populated national forests and park lands at an ever increasing rate to grow an alarming amount of marijuana. Isolated hamlets and farm structures well away from more populated areas have long-been used for manufacturing harder drugs such as methamphetamine, which has a tell-tale odor, according to those familiar with the process.

Along they way, these uncaring hoodlums pollute our mountain streams and hollows by carelessly dumping their toxic stews of chemical waste, along with all signs of their illegal activity, where animals and rain water can spread the poisons.

With increasing frequency, California's prison guards are hearing jailed drug lords and gang leaders talk about Shasta County as "Little L.A.," an area that is ripe for the picking.

These gangs are trying to gain or maintain control over the manufacturing and transportation of drugs in and through the area. It behooves us all to recognize the signs of gang activity and quickly report it to authorities.

Only then will we remain free of gang-land brutality.