{"id":16465,"date":"2025-06-09T04:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16465"},"modified":"2025-06-09T04:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:41:17","slug":"scissors-guns-and-drugs-stories-of-spanish-seasonal-workers-on-californias-illegal-marijuana-farms-el-pais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16465","title":{"rendered":"“Scissors, guns, and drugs: Stories of Spanish seasonal workers on California\u2019s illegal marijuana farms”, El Pais"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LUIS VELASCO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jun 8, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, people from around the world travel to California to work in this illicit trade, which is controlled by criminal organizations and marked by precariousness and violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Marihuana
JAVIER OLIVARES (EL PA\u00cdS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The historic Highway 101, the so-called \u201cdrug highway,\u201d connects California\u2019s Emerald Triangle. There, seasonal marijuana laborers or \u201ctrimmers\u201d look for work on farms along a 250-mile stretch along a route that has served as a clandestine artery for drug trafficking into Mexico since the 1970s. The financial media outlet\u00a0Business Insider\u00a0<\/em>estimates that some 150,000 people travel each season to these mountains, where 60% of the\u00a0cannabis consumed in the United States<\/a>\u00a0is grown. Waiters, lawyers, teachers, street vendors… Young and old, with or without higher education, grab scissors to cut marijuana for three months, using the money they earn to pay for rent, medical treatment, or master\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabel, 26, had already donated three eggs to pay for her driver\u2019s license and buy a car when she was 21. She was tired of smiling for eight hours for tips as a waitress in a bar in San Sebasti\u00e1n<\/a>, Spain. She couldn\u2019t make many plans for the future. On one of her days off, which she usually spent drinking coffee and chatting with friends, one of them suggested: \u201cLet\u2019s go to California. In three months we\u2019ll make $10,000 harvesting marijuana, and then we\u2019ll come back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years later, she explains by phone that she has just concluded her journey to the United States. Requesting anonymity like the rest of the interviewees, she is one of that small, invisible army of Spaniards who decide to cross the pond to work on illegal cannabis farms located in Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino counties in northern California. \u201cI have a friend who saw a guy killed right in front of him in Covelo [Mendocino] because they thought he had stolen weed. And an Italian friend who was shot in the chest and stabbed because he entered the wrong farm at night high. He survived because he was taken to the hospital by helicopter,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nature overflows into the scattered towns of the Emerald Triangle and protects the marijuana havens. The hippie communities of the 1970s, many of which have now become a kind of cannabis cooperative, saw in this fertile land and in the invisibility afforded by the enormous sequoia trees a perfect alternative to urban life. Thus began this unstoppable industry for California sheriffs. Although the \u201cwhite spots\u201d \u2014 greenhouses where the trimmers work \u2014 are recognizable among the valleys as one enters the mountains, the Marijuana Enforcement Team Operation (MET), the special Humboldt unit dedicated to dismantling illegally operating plantations, is unable to burst the bubble. Only when they deploy helicopters can they dismantle some of the farms, uproot the plants, and burn them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to data from the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce (UCETF) website \u2014 a department created in 2022 to eradicate the illegal marijuana trade in California \u2014 nearly $600 million worth of unauthorized cannabis was seized in 2024, 583,000 plants were eradicated, and 167 firearms were confiscated in 380 operations. Since 2016, marijuana use has been legal in California for those aged over 21. The law does, however, limit the amount that can be carried (one ounce, or about 28 grams) and the amount that can be grown: six plants and only for personal use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legalization of recreational marijuana<\/a> has nearly wiped out small farmers and sown the seeds for score-settling and disappearances. Sett, on his family farm in Eureka, recalls: \u201cMy grandfather used to pay seasonal workers a lot more. They screwed me over because I have to compete with legal companies and traffickers. If I want to legalize my production, I have to give 30% of my profits to the state, and another 15% goes to the trimmers\u2019 salaries. It\u2019s impossible; it\u2019s not profitable for me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 20 day laborers work on his farm each season to harvest an investment of about $500,000 in marijuana. That\u2019s why many join cooperatives to increase profits in the legal market. Although some continue to sell on the black market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), an organization founded in 1995 that promotes cannabis legalization, the United States has raised more than $20 billion from the legal cannabis industry in the last 10 years. These figures are supported by Reuters reports. According to the agricultural consulting firm Era Economics, 1.4 million pounds (635,000 kilograms) of legal cannabis were produced in California in 2024, while total consumption in the state was 3.8 million pounds (1.7 million kilograms).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Trimmers
Trimmers at a farm run by a Bulgarian organization in Alderpoint in 2019.LUIS VELASCO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Hmong<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Exterior<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The peak period for labor is between September and January. During these months, U.S. cooperatives and small producers, along with networks from Mexico, Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, and China, harvest their crops on land that is often rented. They require a significant amount of labor for two types of tasks: harvesting, where the plant is cared for and cut, earning around $100 a day; and trimming, the final step before marijuana enters the legal or illegal market. Here, the buds are trimmed, cleaned of branches and leaves, and packaged in 453-gram (one-pound) bags. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 2000 and 2021, when the Hmong communities \u2014 the Chinese ethnic group who are the fastest in the trade with a pair of scissors \u2014 had not yet taken root, nor had Eastern European mafias or Mexican cartels<\/a> burst into these mountains, trimming was remunerated at more than $300 per bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five years ago, on the best farms, the price was barely $150. Despite this, a young Spaniard earned more than the minimum monthly wage in Spain in four days. Now, cannabis taxes and the impact of the black market have set the range between $30 and $80 per pound. A novice trimmer can make two bags in five hours, depending on their skill with school-sized scissors whose curved tips shape the bud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabel had everything planned: which airports to avoid, which visa to obtain, and where to open a bank account. \u201cMy parents weren\u2019t happy about it, but for me it was an opportunity. It has its risks, and there are a lot of sons of bitches who don\u2019t pay you,\u201d she says now. She borrowed money and landed in California. \u201cSleeping in a sleeping bag in those freezing temperatures, depending on someone who has a car, constantly trimming\u2026 It was a huge change. Not everyone is cut out for this,\u201d she explains. In her first four seasons, she made $4,000 in three months. Far from the $10,000 she had imagined. \u201cWhat they don\u2019t tell you is that many of the farms don\u2019t have hot water or a place to cook or sleep. But the weed is usually awesome and it\u2019s worth it,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redondo, 32, also heard from a friend that the solution to the family\u2019s ruin lay in California. He first came from Toledo, in central Spain, to the Emerald Triangle when he was 26. Before cutting marijuana for Russians, Americans, and Mexicans, he worked as a waiter and kitchen assistant in London, sold contracts for energy company Iberdrola door-to-door for \u20ac15 ($17) an hour in Castilla-La Mancha, and was a lifeguard in Mallorca, where he also worked at a catering company. All this to pay for a \u20ac2,000 ($2,276) bartending course that never led him anywhere. In less than three months, the time limit set on the tourist visa (ESTA) for Spaniards on U.S. soil, he returned with $5,000. But it wasn\u2019t enough. He returned twice more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garberville was his first stop. Psychedelic murals decorate the facades of local buildings and businesses, serving as a trading point for the belongings of trimmers returning home. It\u2019s also common to find posters of those who have gone missing in the mountains. EL PA\u00cdS tried unsuccessfully to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff\u2019s Department to find out the number of marijuana-related disappearances. The regional newspaper\u00a0North Coast Journal<\/em>\u00a0reported in 2018 that between 2000 and 2016, there was an average of 717 missing persons per year, many of them related to the illegal cannabis industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one side of Garberville\u2019s main road, which bisects the town, Ray\u2019s Food Place emerges, the supermarket\u2019s parking lot serving as an employment office. Groups of \u201ctrimmigrants,\u201d easily recognizable by their baggy pants, worn sweatshirts, old t-shirts, and muddy boots, await their next job. Days, even weeks, in which they kill time between American Spirit cigarettes, joints, and conversations recounting their experiences on the farms, giving rise to new WhatsApp groups. Nights where they learn to sleep on the asphalt accompanied by tweakers or vagrants who have lost their minds to methamphetamine<\/a>. The routine is always the same: breakfast in the parking lot and waiting for a farmer (owner) to roll down the window of his dusty pickup truck and ask, \u201cDo you want to work?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this initial meeting, conditions are agreed upon, such as access to a bathroom, food, or where to pitch the tent. \u201cThe first year, you agree to anything. You don\u2019t ask how much the weed weighs, how many trimmers there are, or how long you\u2019ll be there. You grab your sleeping bag and go. You\u2019re so desperate that all you think about is making money. They brought us trays of methamphetamines to keep us working,\u201d Redondo recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabel agrees that desperation can play tricks on you in the mountains, where there\u2019s hardly any cell phone coverage. \u201cIf I saw I could be in danger, I\u2019d leave,\u201d she emphasizes, recalling how a Mexican boss grabbed a female companion by the neck when she tried to trick him with a pound weight: \u201cI couldn\u2019t do anything. The first thought is to throw myself at them, but then you see the weapons and think it\u2019s better to do nothing. Just scream.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redondo also felt a cold sweat break out all over his body several times: \u201cWe were trimming in Eureka. Suddenly, the farmer came in high on drugs, saying we had stolen a submachine gun to get his marijuana. He took us all outside and emptied our cars and suitcases. He made two Argentinians kneel. He held a shotgun to their heads. They were crying and begging him not to kill them. When I tried to mediate, he made me walk and pointed it at my back. That\u2019s when I thought: it\u2019s over. But another trimmer found the gun inside the house, and it all came to nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marijuana farms follow a clear hierarchy. At the top are the farmers, who own the land and make the rules. One step below are the growers, in charge of organizing the work and agreeing on the conditions with the trimmers, who occupy the bottom rung. The boss\u2019s rule varies depending on who you work for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russians avoid any trickery by weighing each pound before and after. Mexicans, Bulgarians, and Albanians prefer chaos: they place a plastic bucket overflowing with marijuana in the middle of the room, from which each seasonal worker takes what they can, which generates conflict over who gets the heaviest share. Because the slower one is, the more money the other makes. Americans, unpredictable, alternate between rigidity and disorder. On the vast majority of farms, bags are signed with each seasonal worker\u2019s ID to avoid fights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A trimmer at a farm in Eureka, 2019.LUIS VELASCO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Seasonal<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Tents<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The insecurity in the Emerald Triangle doesn\u2019t stem solely from those with guns. Lacking papers and health insurance, seasonal workers often pose as homeless people in order to receive hospital care. \u201cThey know you\u2019re a trimmer. They\u2019re used to it, like the police. You sign a document saying you\u2019re living in your car parked on a random street, and they treat you,\u201d explains Redondo, who for two months had a \u201clarge, infected cut that wouldn\u2019t heal\u201d on his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those returning to the Emerald Triangle after having to leave the U.S. because their visas expired avoid American airports. Thus, all trimmers have a phone number for someone named Coyote, Guillermo, or Juan at Mexican customs who reopens the doors. Isabel, Redondo, and Unai (33) always returned through the endless stretch of Tijuana border crossing after almost using up their 90-day visa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While \u201cstripping weed\u201d during his first season, Unai learned that Mexican customs would stamp passports for $100 on \u201cany date you want.\u201d \u201cThe key is to cross the border on foot or by car and not use up all the days on your visa, in case they ask you something when you enter the United States,\u201d he explains in a video call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has trimmed buds on more than 20 farms in three years, sometimes \u201cwith up to 100 people at a time\u201d and in very precarious conditions. \u201cMy days were work, work, and work. And I stopped as little as possible to eat. But even when I didn\u2019t trim for four or five months, I made more money that year than in Spain,\u201d he explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like so many others, many of the farmers didn\u2019t pay him for his work, but that hasn\u2019t stopped him from buying land in Canc\u00fan. He\u2019s not afraid. He assures us he\u2019ll return in the coming months: \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t gone, I wouldn\u2019t have what I have today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before returning, some trimmers agree with farmers to continue their work in Spain, especially in Catalonia and Andalusia. Last year, the Mossos d\u2019Esquadra (the Catalan regional police) dismantled 439 plantations, 56 of which were farms like those in California, which are declining due to the drought affecting the region<\/a>. In 2021, the Mossos dismantled more than 200 such facilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ram\u00f3n Chac\u00f3n, head of Criminal Investigation for the Mossos, nods when the landscape of tents, trimmers, and criminal networks in Eastern Europe and China is described to him. He explains that half of the more than 2,000 seasonal marijuana workers they arrest each year are \u201cyoung Spaniards working in appalling conditions, with no criminal record and unaware that they are part of a criminal organization.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only in Catalonia are more drugs seized than in Italy. Chac\u00f3n recalls the case of Pol Cugat, a young university student murdered more than three years ago while guarding a plantation in Les Borges Blanques (Lleida) with three friends, whose body disappeared: \u201cThey came to report it, and when we got to the farm, the body was gone. We\u2019re still investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A plantation owner’s house in Garberville, in 2019.LUIS VELASCO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Exterior<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Mossos d\u2019Esquadra mapping reveals that the greenhouses are increasingly moving toward the Pyrenees to hinder the search. \u201cThe paradox is that the drug we view most favorably is the one that is causing the most homicides, the most organized crime, the most human trafficking, the most drug robberies, and the most kidnappings,\u201d says Chac\u00f3n, who points out that they have awarded a contract to three companies worth \u20ac334,700 ($382,420) to clear the plantations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Son (40) picks up his phone to be interviewed. He\u2019s in Spain, at a beach bar. The music pierces the phone\u2019s microphone during the conversation. He returned from California in February. He\u2019s been going to the same American farms in Humboldt and Trinity for 10 years. The most he\u2019s ever earned was $54,000 in nine months, not including food, hotels, and leisure travel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat stuff about making $10,000 in three months is a lie. You make $4,000 if you\u2019re lucky. I know a lot of people who came with an idea for their projects and didn\u2019t get anywhere near it,\u201d he stresses. He doesn\u2019t recommend anyone venture into the mountains of the Emerald Triangle now. The marijuana business has changed, it\u2019s become more obscure, and current prices don\u2019t match the sacrifice, he says. \u201cNow what makes the money is hashish,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 So why are you going back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 I\u2019m only going for a couple of months, with my usual bosses. It\u2019s a way to be free and not be a slave to society. If you\u2019re a good worker, it\u2019s like any other job. The American dream is within each of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isabel isn\u2019t considering a return: \u201cI want to get away from that world. Travel and work in Europe with my truck, which is what I\u2019ve always wanted.\u201d Redondo says the money he earned in California gave him freedom, a cushion, and the ability to help his parents. \u201cBut you\u2019re very scared because it seems like this is going to be your life. And you ask yourself: Do I really have to do this? What I want is to spend time with my family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 What if the need reappeared?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Ask a soldier if he would go back to war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LUIS VELASCO Jun 8, 2025 Every year, people from around the world travel to California to work in this illicit trade, which is controlled by criminal organizations and marked by precariousness and violence The historic Highway 101, the so-called \u201cdrug highway,\u201d connects California\u2019s Emerald Triangle. There, seasonal marijuana laborers or \u201ctrimmers\u201d look for work on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16466,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16465\/revisions\/16466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}