Pot farms--the illegal type--in the California desert

That's the big headline from the Los Angeles Times today.  Here's an excerpt:  

The rise of Mojave Desert pot farming began shortly after California voted to legalize marijuana in 2016. Ever since, black-market growers have flocked to the desert, which offers a near-perfect environment for large-scale farming: endless sunshine, cheap open space and virtually no police. Though desert pot does require enormous amounts of water, growers have discovered that that they can buy or steal all they need.

Bulldozers scrape desert brush and topsoil into tall berms as growers clear space for row after row of tunnel-like greenhouses, from which the pungent scent of cannabis wafts over neighborhoods. In some cases, illegal pot farms sprawl across the desert floor like corporate agricultural compounds, seemingly springing up overnight.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies within the last few months have counted 500 such illegal grow sites from the air — a huge jump from the 150 tallied last year. In San Bernardino County, sheriff’s deputies have come across 860 illegal sites. The farms have become so numerous that one outraged resident posted drone footage of one greenhouse after another filling a one-mile stretch of desert in Twentynine Palms.

I'm reminded of this recent news of massive illegal pot grows at the other end of the state.