Mysterious 'Murder Mountain' run by black market cannabis farms where dozens of naive weed smokers have been kidnapped and murdered
The show details the killing of Garret Rodriguez – who vanished in 2013 after working in the drug trade in Humboldt County in the north of the state.
His family tells how Garret, from San Diego, was shot and buried before later being dug up by vigilantes desperate to solve the crime which local police appeared unable to do.
Humboldt is one-third of the infamous “Emerald Triangle” – which also includes Mendocino and Trinity Counties – which is known across the weed-smoking world for its abundant cannabis cultivation.
The area, which has the highest missing person’s rate per capita in California, has a dark and violent recent history.
Alderpoint, in Humboldt, was dubbed “Murder Mountain” in 1982 after serial killers Michael Bear Carson and Suzan Carson slayed a cannabis worker on a farm there.
HIPPIES AND SERIAL KILLERS
The pair, known as the “San Francisco Witch Killers”, worked with growers in the area who described them as anarchists obsessed with a so-called “nuclear apocalypse.”
After clashing with farm worker Clark Stephens, the criminals shot and killed him before fleeing the area leaving only their “manifesto” which detailed a plot to kill then-US President Ronald Reagan.
Humboldt became a hippie destination in the 1970s popular with Vietnam vets who would treat their PTSD with the cannabis from the farms.
The Netflix documentary is unashamed in its desire to show what it views as the problems with the prohibition of cannabis.
In the 1980s, state and federal cops joined forces to wage war on the weed farmers in Northern California.
Military-style helicopters and heavily-armed police would ransack farms without warrants, the Netflix doc claims.
It is in this period when so-called “softer” farmers were driven out leaving the hardened and often violent criminals to control the area’s drug market.
In fact, the passing of California’s Proposition 64 in 2016, which legalised marijuana, has brought further problems to the troubled region.
Rising costs caused by taxes and permit applications have forced smaller growers to remain on the black market.
VIOLENT DRUG GANGS
Documentary filmmaker Josh Zeman told Rolling Stone that the illegal trade of cannabis has seen an increased production of drugs such as meth and heroin in the area as well as sex trafficking.
He said: “The illegal production and sale of marijuana can beget the illegal production and sale of other things.
“If, for example, a drug trafficking organization decides it’s going to set up an illegal grow in Humboldt, they can then use those same drug trafficking pathways for other illegal things, be it other drugs or sex trafficking.”
The documentary discovers that young, idealistic pot smokers travel to the area hoping to work on the cannabis farms there – but end up being swallowed up by the violent illegal drug trade.
Many simply vanish.
One of those is Asha Kreimer – a 26-year-old Australian national who, in September 2015, had a mental health episode while with her boyfriend in Mendocino County, part of the Emerald Triangle.
After being discharged from hospital, Asha went missing after telling her partner she was going to the restroom at a cafe.
She has never been seen since despite having no money, credit cards or shoes when she disappeared.
Another tragic case is that of Hana Hammer – who went missing in Petrolia, Humboldt County, on January 25 last year.
Her body was later found on February 21 by a hiker on nearby Mattole Beach.
Although filmmaker Zeman points out that the high number of missing people in Humboldt – an average of 717 people per 100,000 every year – is partly due to people moving to the rural area to get “off the grid.”
He said: “A lot of people go missing [in Humboldt], but a lot of people are also found.”
This could also explain why the sparsely populated state of Alaska has the highest missing person rate in the entire US combined with the largest land area.
Some people simply don’t want to be found.
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