AfterDawn: Tech news

Marijuana field spotted through Google Earth

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 30 Jan 2009 5:15 User comments (58)

Marijuana field spotted through Google Earth Swiss authorities announced today that they had found a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the extremely popular free satellite mapping software.
The discovery was part of an ongoing investigation that has so far led to the arrest of 16 people and the seizure of 1.2 tons of marijuana with a street value of $2.5 million USD. Cash and other valuables were seized as well with a value of over $800,000 USD.

The head of Zurich police's specialist narcotics unit, Norbert Klossner, said the field was in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau. The plantation is about 7500 square meters and was hidden inside a larger field of corn.

"It was an interesting chance discovery,"
said Klossner.



The 16 suspects have allegedly sold 7.7 tons of marijuana since 2004, making an average of 6 million Swiss francs a year.

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58 user comments

130.1.2009 17:22

ROFL.

230.1.2009 18:01
atomicxl
Inactive

Google Earth is now the worst invention ever. Its responsible for removing 1.2 tons of love, peace and happiness from the world.

330.1.2009 18:12

Originally posted by atomicxl:
Google Earth is now the worst invention ever. Its responsible for removing 1.2 tons of love, peace and happiness from the world.
lol

430.1.2009 18:14

Oh no bounty will be put on the inventors of this project.

530.1.2009 18:20
tripplite
Inactive

maybe....lol poor saps....it could have worked as good advertisement....maw goodness....are the bodies on google earth to *gasp! lol

630.1.2009 18:21

They could have shared-

730.1.2009 19:33

Maybe we could 'pony up' a defense fund for them....lol. I wish the defendants lots of luck!

830.1.2009 19:35

hahaha, lol, wow... does anyone know where this might be in, like the exact location..i doubt anything will say though.

930.1.2009 19:40

i knew it google is trying to take over the world.

1030.1.2009 21:51

The worst thing is its not even up to date any where!!!

1130.1.2009 22:38
vballstud
Inactive

*checks for local marijuana fields*

1231.1.2009 00:09

WOW! Thanks google... Next they are gonna be looking into peoples houses...

1331.1.2009 00:40

Legalize it tax it and roll in the green...nothing wrong with all that dope,cut it dry it and sell it for profit!
Use the same laws for alcohol to govern its negative effects on society, I swear government has no clue whats its doing...

1431.1.2009 00:42
tripplite
Inactive

Mauritania is putty feet for the conservatives and democratic republicans....its some partisan backwash...hate factions...lol rome total war.....lol yer right ^^

1531.1.2009 02:22
SamNz
Inactive

lol OWNED but its the kinda thing you never think of, "pfft its not like there goin to use a satellite to find our crop OHH crap" lol

1631.1.2009 02:25
cousinkix
Inactive

The mountains near the Google headquarters in Sunnyvale California USA are full of marijuana plants every growing season. Their satellite photos hardly put a cramp on the weed crops at home. Are you worried about the police seizing private property and homes in Switzerland? Then grow your plants in the remote areas of the state parks just like the drug cartels around Silicon Valley...

1731.1.2009 02:27

Originally posted by cousinkix:
The mountains near the Google headquarters in Sunnyvale California USA are full of marijuana plants every growing season. Their satellite photos hardly put a cramp on the weed crops at home. Are you worried about the police seizing private property and homes in Switzerland? Then grow your plants in the remote areas of the state parks just like the drug cartels around Silicon Valley...
In a nanny state you pay taxes to restrict your rights and freedoms.

1831.1.2009 03:00
cousinkix
Inactive

Big Brother cannot seize private homes if they grow marijuana in places like Henry Coe State Park just down the road from the Google office. The San Francisco CHRONICLE outdoor writer wrote quite a column on the marijuana gardens a couple of years ago...

1931.1.2009 03:29

Originally posted by cousinkix:
Big Brother cannot seize private homes if they grow marijuana in places like Henry Coe State Park just down the road from the Google office. The San Francisco CHRONICLE outdoor writer wrote quite a column on the marijuana gardens a couple of years ago...
No one said they could but my point is if we were not a nanny state and let adults be adults and have their vices under mature and fair limits one could give a portion of the liqueur or pot to the government in lue of taxes and the government can sell it off or use it themselfs.

2031.1.2009 09:02
blueroad
Inactive

hmm lol i hope google earth cant zoom too much to see the few plants on ma roof ^^
long live civil disobediance

211.2.2009 01:23

Google is going down a trail here preety soon they are going to sign contracts with the government (if not already) allowing them to invade our privacy in our homes. Guys i typed in my home address and a 3D view of my street home and cars in the drive way showed up Lol you could see my garbage cans in the back. This is getting ridiculous, i can see something big is about to happen and its going to be Chaos.

221.2.2009 08:50

Yes when you saw your house was it in real time or was your area out of date because here we have a new police station that was built in 2006 and new walmart and they do not show up they are still empty lots plus we have snow and it shows this area in the sunner.

231.2.2009 13:05

The only thing I can say to this is, LMFAO

241.2.2009 13:43

The images on google map are at least in most cases a year out of date. When someone looks up my address they'll see all the damage that had just been done to my roof and trees right after an ice storm in December 2007. Something tells me they were watching and waiting for this crop to grow up so they'd have a real case to make. Kind of hard to prosecute someone for just having seedlings. :P

251.2.2009 13:51

How come they haven't found the opium fields in Afghanistan, destroyed them, cut off the Taliban's cash and brought our troops home.

261.2.2009 16:55

Originally posted by telewig:
How come they haven't found the opium fields in Afghanistan, destroyed them, cut off the Taliban's cash and brought our troops home.

i think it's because there's too much money to be made/wasted on war.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 01 Feb 2009 @ 4:56

271.2.2009 19:41

Scaremongering thats what its all about, just keep doing what you do and dont worry!!

281.2.2009 20:45

don't fool your selfs switzerland can't afford satilites so they probly did see it in old image and wait till next crop to bust the poor pot growers

that said the U.S.Gov. has satilites already hunderds of them and if you think their not watching then your a fool

they know all and see all they just don't tip their hand over a few hunderd pot plants

I mean come on when I was in the service in 1980 they could read car plates from space now they can read a dime I'm told .......so they know!!

291.2.2009 23:36
WiseEyes
Inactive

Originally posted by telewig:
How come they haven't found the opium fields in Afghanistan, destroyed them, cut off the Taliban's cash and brought our troops home.
Yeah, the pot growers aren't the real terrorists!

302.2.2009 00:46

they know right where the opium is growing
but since it's the only money making industry in Afghanistan
our gov ignors it because to stop it would cause more trouble not less for our troops
to bring them home we need to expand into pakistan and basicly get them at home and when they cross the border to attack us

312.2.2009 02:06

Because they U.S. gov't is too busy making money off of the opium.

322.2.2009 03:21

Listen the 3d view they had up was from Last summer by looking at the trees but its amazing how they could invade your privacy like that. look at it security wise what if your personal information got compromised with Google earth an attacker can verify where you live and what house your live in i call that invasion of privacy and i think it needs to be stopped. Google needs to use this shit to help the US not for spying on us. Looking at the logic of it how can a statelites zoom down and give off 3d imagery. Google has the highest of high tech equipment.

332.2.2009 03:36

quote:"Google has the highest of high tech equipment"

WRONG !!!!

the U.S. Government does

342.2.2009 04:48

NO you are sorta right but if they were the ONLY ones with high tech equipment Google earth wouldnt had been the survailenece used to spy on a marijuana field....

352.2.2009 10:24

its sad that the cops are no using the web, but understandably its a work in progress the sat pics are out of date what no one thought was that the feilds must now be rotated to other locations change of view if you must but why didnt the US government use it to find all those weapons of mass distruction ... oh wait there wasnt any just a weapon of mass(the whole world) disstraction oh ok that makes more since

362.2.2009 10:38

LMAO.

372.2.2009 11:29

Thays too funny lmao

But now all they have done is told the crooks they need to cover it up and grow it inside away from veiw. Perhaps they should of kept the fact that they used google earth to themselves. Not to mention the pot farmers could check google themselves to make sure if it can be seen or not lol

382.2.2009 12:12

"gamechief"
while google does have satilelites
check your google earth it only zooms in clear to a point
U.S. Gov. satilelites can count the hairs sticking out of a girl whos laying out's bikini big difference
and the reason the swiss didn't use our Gov. satilelites is simple cost
our Gov. charges other countrys to use our technology and of course they reduce its ablity's so no knows just how good our technology is

392.2.2009 12:50

They tried prohibition and it created the Mafia. When are they going to learn when more people do it faster than they can build jails to hold them, laws need to be repealed? As for Google, George Orwell only missed it by a quarter of a century. With the new Terrorist Act since 9/11 we've lost all our rights under the 4th Amendment.
Google is now involved w/the U.S. Government to create a massive data base which lets Big Brother know any and everything you've ever seen or read on the net, and I mean every single one of us. Not to mention the invasion of home and privacy without any justifiable reason of suspicion or search warrants. I guess McCarthyism is still alive and well in the good ole U.S.of A.
You don't have to grow or sell to be busted, just try recreational use and see where you end up. But hey, don't worry, they're just looking out for our own well being! Right?

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 02 Feb 2009 @ 12:52

402.2.2009 12:55

Originally posted by bigorange:
They tried prohibition and it created the Mafia. When are they going to learn when more people do it faster than they can build jails to hold them, laws need to be repealed? As for Google, George Orwell only missed it by a quarter of a century. With the new Terrorist Act since 9/11 we've lost all our rights under the 4th Amendment.
Google is now involved w/the U.S. Government to create a massive data base which lets Big Brother know any and everything you've ever seen or read on the net, and I mean every single one of us. Not to mention the invasion of home and privacy without any justifiable reason of suspicion or search warrants. I guess McCarthyism is still alive and well in the good ole U.S.of A.
You don't have to grow or sell to be busted, just try recreational use and see where you end up. But hey, don't worry, they're just looking out for our own well being! Right?
AMEN!!!!

but we got OBAMA now he said he was for legalizing weed!!!!
if he keeps only one promise I hope that's it!!

412.2.2009 13:53
WiseEyes
Inactive

Quote:
Originally posted by bigorange:
They tried prohibition and it created the Mafia. When are they going to learn when more people do it faster than they can build jails to hold them, laws need to be repealed? As for Google, George Orwell only missed it by a quarter of a century. With the new Terrorist Act since 9/11 we've lost all our rights under the 4th Amendment.
Google is now involved w/the U.S. Government to create a massive data base which lets Big Brother know any and everything you've ever seen or read on the net, and I mean every single one of us. Not to mention the invasion of home and privacy without any justifiable reason of suspicion or search warrants. I guess McCarthyism is still alive and well in the good ole U.S.of A.
You don't have to grow or sell to be busted, just try recreational use and see where you end up. But hey, don't worry, they're just looking out for our own well being! Right?
AMEN!!!!

but we got OBAMA now he said he was for legalizing weed!!!!
if he keeps only one promise I hope that's it!!
Oh what a party that'll be! Home-grown will crop-up everywhere and push back the dealers off the street. The government will only be able to tax the commercial growers. Heaven on earth.

422.2.2009 14:09

A................MEN!!!!!

432.2.2009 14:26

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by bigorange:
They tried prohibition and it created the Mafia. When are they going to learn when more people do it faster than they can build jails to hold them, laws need to be repealed? As for Google, George Orwell only missed it by a quarter of a century. With the new Terrorist Act since 9/11 we've lost all our rights under the 4th Amendment.
Google is now involved w/the U.S. Government to create a massive data base which lets Big Brother know any and everything you've ever seen or read on the net, and I mean every single one of us. Not to mention the invasion of home and privacy without any justifiable reason of suspicion or search warrants. I guess McCarthyism is still alive and well in the good ole U.S.of A.
You don't have to grow or sell to be busted, just try recreational use and see where you end up. But hey, don't worry, they're just looking out for our own well being! Right?
AMEN!!!!

but we got OBAMA now he said he was for legalizing weed!!!!
if he keeps only one promise I hope that's it!!
Oh what a party that'll be! Home-grown will crop-up everywhere and push back the dealers off the street. The government will only be able to tax the commercial growers. Heaven on earth.

The could open up liquor as well, start off with a 100$ a year growers/makers license then tax a percentage of commercial growerson top of that.

442.2.2009 16:05

screw buying the weed I live in central Illinois in a small farm town I'd buy my tax stamp [ I'd even be willing to pay say $300+ for it since I smoke that much in a couple months now] and I'd just grow my own very high quality weed
and I'm sure most poor pot smokers who have a yard or spare closet would do the same making the Mexico weed connection dead....thank god swag sucks

452.2.2009 18:17

I wouldn't worry about Google earth they are not even up to date. I looked in my area and the buildings are 2 years at least out of date. Now if there was a reason too get upset don't because the pictures of areas are not up too date.

462.2.2009 18:32

I am afraid there is better money to be made in incarcerations, new prisons, and so on than in legalization of pot. Legal weed only gives the gov. a growers' or users' tax. They can make a lot more on perpetual fines, jail time, etc. Plus, the user "becomes" a criminal that can be controled in far more ways, not least of which are the removal of his constitutional rights to self-defence (gun ownership) and to his citizen-control of the system (voting and jurying). Face it, this is a "legal" end-run around your rights as a free American. We may still be brave, but we are rapidly losing our ability to be the land of the free.

Don't think for a minute that Obamah won't be pulled into that Washington Insiders club. We all thought, too, that the peanut farmer from Georgia (Jimmy Carter) was no patsy of the powers that be. We know better now. Obamah is not the antichrist, but neither is he the Messiah. His starry-eyed idealism will be forced back to reality before his first 100 days in office.

473.2.2009 01:24

A lot of you are noongs lol.

Let me see, a cop just happens to see a small marijuana field whilst browsing on Google Earth...

Oh come on, it's a media beat-up. For one thing Google doesn't resolve those images using satellites only. When it gets closer it switches to aerial photographs. No satellite can resolve to the resolutions that some here believe it can- simply because of atmospheric diffusion. Identification of large crops via satellite has to be done using special filters and such. I mean how many of you have spotted a particular plant species with Google Earth? Even if the cops used the original aerial negatives it's not done every day.

Surely the line "...The 16 suspects have allegedly sold 7.7 tons of marijuana since 2004...." should give you pause for the veracity of the report. I mean, how did they know that? From GE... c'on. :D

Oh yeah, if your country hands over the responsibility for punitive incarceration for breaking it's laws to private industry then you can forget marijuana ever being decriminalised much less legalised. It's a fine in my state, but the authorities have constantly been whittling down those rights, to one plant grown outdoors now (and they still bitch)- of course if you do that some little ratboy will leap over the fence and filch it or if you've harvested it then expect a break-in and a steaming egg laid on your kitchen table... and it won't be breakfast.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Feb 2009 @ 2:40

483.2.2009 18:22

This is some great news and now Google can say that they help the community. The scary thing is this reminds me of the movie called Eagle Eye, not far now for them to create something so they can see me sitting in my room typing this comment.

493.2.2009 19:33

Re: Jemborg's insightful comments.

Privatization of incarceration is an unfortunate fact of life in America now. It does make money, so there are plenty of lobbyists encouraging politicians to increase it at the expense of the general populace.

As one among many references any one of us could find with a simple search, see:
http://mediafilter.org/caq/Prison.html
particularly at the heading labeled "The Buslnes (sic) of Punishment".

Thanks Jemborg, for your common-sense approach to this rather than more apocalyptic fear peddling.

504.2.2009 15:40

Originally posted by edisongs:
Re: Jemborg's insightful comments.
Well, you're welcome edisongs, but I was really seconding your excellent post earlier. It's happens in my country too (Australia)- the refugee camps that used to incarcerate them were privately run.

If you really want the willies, see "Ghosts of the Civil Dead" a Aussie film (starring Nick Cave of all people- being particularly mental) that deals with the subject. Not a documentary. It postulates that creating (worse) criminals will be the agenda for these prison companies, not rehabilitation. Why? Because it's good for business.

And, as long as you (questionably) allow gated suburbs... why should they care if more violent crims wander the streets ready to re-offend and be re-incarcerated.

It's my bet the cops had a tip-off about that crop. Busted it. Had a look at the old photo's on GEarth saw something green in the same place years ago- went and dug up the original aerial 10"x10" negs for evidence. It still might not stand up in court.

Large crop identification is done by reading the already know wavelength signatures of said crops. As it stands, you might be able to pick out a truck with spy satellites, as to reading it's number plate... forget it.

PS: We have very strict gun ownership laws here- gun crime of the type America regularly sees is quite rare. Michael Moore (deliberately?) got it wrong about Canada- they have very strict laws regarding handgun ownership too.

Cheers.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 04 Feb 2009 @ 3:51

514.2.2009 16:07
WiseEyes
Inactive

Quote:
Originally posted by edisongs:
Re: Jemborg's insightful comments.
Well, you're welcome edisongs, but I was really seconding your excellent post earlier. It's happens in my country too (Australia)- the refugee camps that used to incarcerate them were privately run.

If you really want the willies, see "Ghosts of the Civil Dead" a Aussie film (starring Nick Cave of all people- being particularly mental) that deals with the subject. Not a documentary. It postulates that creating (worse) criminals will be the agenda for these prison companies, not rehabilitation. Why? Because it's good for business.

And, as long as you (questionably) allow gated suburbs... why should they care if more violent crims wander the streets ready to re-offend and be re-incarcerated.

It's my bet the cops had a tip-off about that crop. Busted it. Had a look at the old photo's on GEarth saw something green in the same place years ago- went and dug up the original aerial 10"x10" negs for evidence. It still might not stand up in court.

Large crop identification is done by reading the already know wavelength signatures of said crops. As it stands, you might be able to pick out a truck with spy satellites, as to reading it's number plate... forget it.

PS: We have very strict gun ownership laws here- gun crime of the type America regularly sees is quite rare. Michael Moore (deliberately?) got it wrong about Canada- they have very strict laws regarding handgun ownership too.

Cheers.
Just one more reason to legalize it altogether.

5226.7.2010 07:45
badmann
Unverified new user

they used the google program to search cause its free real time satalite then can be used to check area realtime they will use google first its free satalite time is like your yearly salary for 1 hr so they will not be using this to look for plants but they can if they wanted. simple solution grow indoors shorter growtime and can make it produce in dif areas so your always harvesting

5326.7.2010 23:53

Originally posted by Jemborg:
Originally posted by edisongs:
Re: Jemborg's insightful comments.
Well, you're welcome edisongs, but I was really seconding your excellent post earlier. It's happens in my country too (Australia)- the refugee camps that used to incarcerate them were privately run.

If you really want the willies, see "Ghosts of the Civil Dead" a Aussie film (starring Nick Cave of all people- being particularly mental) that deals with the subject. Not a documentary. It postulates that creating (worse) criminals will be the agenda for these prison companies, not rehabilitation. Why? Because it's good for business.

And, as long as you (questionably) allow gated suburbs... why should they care if more violent crims wander the streets ready to re-offend and be re-incarcerated.

It's my bet the cops had a tip-off about that crop. Busted it. Had a look at the old photo's on GEarth saw something green in the same place years ago- went and dug up the original aerial 10"x10" negs for evidence. It still might not stand up in court.

Large crop identification is done by reading the already know wavelength signatures of said crops. As it stands, you might be able to pick out a truck with spy satellites, as to reading it's number plate... forget it.

PS: We have very strict gun ownership laws here- gun crime of the type America regularly sees is quite rare. Michael Moore (deliberately?) got it wrong about Canada- they have very strict laws regarding handgun ownership too.

Cheers.
chances are they could smell it from a mile or 2 away.Think they are trying to crack down on all weapon laws in australia.A few years ago you could work in to mitre 10 and buy a 15 inch machette for $15.Now you need a licence to buy most weapons unless you go to a dodgy little asian grocery store.not sure of the marijuana laws here(australia) but i think it legal to grow 1 outdoor plant.I know when i got caught with 1 in 2007 the cop said make sure its for personal use and don't let me catch you dealing.

5427.7.2010 04:55

You are a South Aussie too xboxdvl2?

I think it's the only state where it's decriminalised to some extent. And yeah, you can't even get a handgun replica here now. And I think chefs have to carry their knifes about in a locked case and have a special licence {not 100% sure}, something like that.

5527.7.2010 07:38

yeah south australia.your spot on.originally came here as a baby.

563.6.2011 01:36

@xboxdvl2

My god, thread notification for your post took a long time to come through!

Perhaps there is something to being banned by petty little trolls masquerading as moderators. :P


__________________________________________________________________

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jun 2011 @ 1:39

573.6.2011 01:43

Originally posted by Jemborg:
@xboxdvl2

My god, thread notification for your post took a long time to come through!

Perhaps there is something to being banned by petty little trolls masquerading as moderators. :P


__________________________________________________________________
The notification was actually to another message by a user name (guest name?) "stoner" saying something along the lines of google earth is great I can get now get my shit for free. But that post got deleted.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Jun 2011 @ 1:49

583.6.2011 01:58

Originally posted by vcbc:
Originally posted by Jemborg:
@xboxdvl2

My god, thread notification for your post took a long time to come through!

Perhaps there is something to being banned by petty little trolls masquerading as moderators. :P


__________________________________________________________________
The notification was actually to another message by a user name (guest name?) "stoner" saying something along the lines of google earth is great I can get now get my shit for free. But that post got deleted.
Ahhh.

Well, as you can see from the posts above, in my state it's just a small "lip-service" fine to grow a plant. So I can't see the harm in Stoner's comment. I hardly partake nowadays myself. Geez, I don't drink, smoke ciggies and only have a small toke once a month... I'm getting really boring haha. And as for heroin....

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