Google Earth used to discover pot plantation

[jakncoke]

ZURICH, Switzerland – Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company's satellite mapping software.

Police said they arrested 16 people and seized 1.1 tons (1.2 US tons) of marijuana as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).

Officers discovered the hemp field in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau last year while investigating an alleged drug ring, said the head of Zurich police's specialist narcotics unit Norbert Klossner.

The plantation, measuring almost two acres (7,500 square meters), was hidden inside a field of corn. But officers using Google Earth to locate the address of two farmers suspected of involvement in the drug operation quickly spotted the illegal crop.

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

Prosecutor Gabi Alkalay told reporters in Zurich that she plans to complete her criminal investigation in February, after which she will formally charge the 16 suspects and ask for prison sentences for all of them.

The gang is alleged to have sold up to 7 tons (7.7 US tons) of hashish and marijuana between 2004 and 2008, with an annual turnover of 3-10 million francs a year, officials said.






Damn that's a huge bust for the police, this story just blows my mind. Serves the pot growers right for not knowing about Google Earth and hiding the growing pot though. Either way they'd be busted as that much pot grown indoors would have spiked the electric bill with all the lamps needed and grown attention.

[rukisuto]

Haha, that is totally awesome.
I never even thought about using Google Earth for that.
I bet they're going to check it more often now :]

[LiNuX]

you never thought about using google earth to discover pot plantations around the world? You don't know what you're missing...

but yay for technology

+1 for google earth

[LemonRising]

LMFAO! That's a good one! Though to be hoest, Google Earth has always kind of scared me. :\
MY PRIVACYYYYYYYY


Ok I sound a little paranoid but I swear I'm totally sane <:

[jakncoke]

LMFAO! That's a good one! Though to be hoest, Google Earth has always kind of scared me. :\
MY PRIVACYYYYYYYY


Ok I sound a little paranoid but I swear I'm totally sane <:

Ya it's going to totally suck when Google Earth gets better and expands to real time. Sure it'd help with crime and such but I don't want some satellite watching my every move

[LiNuX]

they already have a real time satellite view thing - but not sure if its with google or another thing - and it's not free

real time video streaming from a satellite will be very expensive - wouldn't be surprised if they start charging lol

[LemonRising]

I am never leaving my house ever again.


:|

[LiNuX]

I am never leaving my house ever again.


:|

if you go out, wear a tin foil hat...I hear it works great against google satellites

[jakncoke]

they already have a real time satellite view thing - but not sure if its with google or another thing - and it's not free

real time video streaming from a satellite will be very expensive - wouldn't be surprised if they start charging lol

In 40-50 years it'll most likely be as cheap as getting some head from some toothless hooker

[LiNuX]

In 40-50 years it'll most likely be as cheap as getting some head from some toothless hooker

lol of course, but 40 years is a long time away

at first they'll probably have to charge something, even a multibillion dollar company like Google can't stream live satellite footage to probably millions of people at a time for free...not at first anyway

i wouldn't be surprised if it becomes dirt cheap within 5-10 years - computer technology is advancing rapidly and its getting cheaper and cheaper everyday

[jakncoke]

Think of all the dirty filthy pedo's fapping to little league cheerleaders, gahh shoot them before this happens

[LiNuX]

Think of all the dirty filthy pedo's fapping to little league cheerleaders, gahh shoot them before this happens

lol, but the thing with live feeds is that they can't move around...they have to view whatever the satellite is viewing, otherwise the view freezes and goes to a saved image from before

I think I went to a friend's house who had a live feed...i think that's where I heard about it before, about it being paid lol, cuz I knew I wasn't pulling that info out of my...lets go with nose

forgot which friend, where, and when lol

[Juicyz]

lol GAWD...... I h8 Google Earth.. they will see my corn planation.. lol its pretty cool though to find peoples houses that you know and see what they doing lol

[LiNuX]

lol GAWD...... I h8 Google Earth.. they will see my corn planation.. lol its pretty cool though to find peoples houses that you know and see what they doing lol

if you're talking about regular google earth then no, you can't see what people "are doing" - you can see what they were doing for half a second if by chance they were there when the satellite was above taking pics lol

[Juicyz]

I know regular google earth updates like every 15 minutes I think

[LiNuX]

I know regular google earth updates like every 15 minutes I think

where'd you get 15 minutes from? lol, that's only if they have like 5 dozen satellites up there, they update a few times a day but I doubt its every 15 minutes, earth is pretty big :)

[Juicyz]

hmm yeah... I thought it said 15 minutes, hmmm... or maybe that might be the upgraded/expensive version

[LiNuX]

"They typically go around the Earth every 90 minutes, but only cover about 1% of the Earth on each pass (you can see strips of imagery if you look at the imagery in Google Earth) - most of that is water."

got that off them - they only update one percent of earth each go - they have several satellites so every 90 minutes, they probably get lets say 10% of the earth, so in 900 minutes or, which is about 15 hours, not minutes, they get about the entire earth updated

and it's not all consistent, one part of earth may be images from 5 minutes ago, the other side may have images from 14 and a half hours ago.

[jakncoke]

lol, but the thing with live feeds is that they can't move around...they have to view whatever the satellite is viewing, otherwise the view freezes and goes to a saved image from before

I think I went to a friend's house who had a live feed...i think that's where I heard about it before, about it being paid lol, cuz I knew I wasn't pulling that info out of my...lets go with nose

forgot which friend, where, and when lol

watch in 50 years they'll let you buy your personal satellite :laugh:

[Juicyz]

lol that would be scary.... total stalker status.

[LiNuX]

watch in 50 years they'll let you buy your personal satellite :laugh:

lol in 50 years, stuff will probably be cheap enough to build your own satellite lol..but by then we'll probably be in mars or europa or something.

[Juicyz]

hmmm yeahz would be better to buy so you dont have to make it, the coding, updating, and launching, and positioning could get expensive.

[jakncoke]

lol in 50 years, stuff will probably be cheap enough to build your own satellite lol..but by then we'll probably be in mars or europa or something.


one can only hope, govt should up the funding to push that to the forefront so I can see the terraformation of whatever we decide to terraform in my lifetime

[Trunks]

I'm surprised they can tell what it was, are they using a more advanced version? When I look at google earth all the plants look the same to me.


one can only hope, govt should up the funding to push that to the forefront so I can see the terraformation of whatever we decide to terraform in my lifetime

yea, because the govt has the money to give.

[jakncoke]

govt has as much money as they want but to get more money without creating more of national debt, war funds and the load of porkbelly spending would be more than enough to help our space program and probably have left over to fix a bunch of bridges/highways/schools

[tama-chan]

errr.. isn't that scary? people might (or WILL actually) use it for crimes. I dont like the idea of realtime offered to those who can afford it.. i mean, if it's the police or what, then it's ok.. but the thought of someone i dont know might be watching me gives me the creeps..

[LemonRising]

errr.. isn't that scary? people might (or WILL actually) use it for crimes. I dont like the idea of realtime offered to those who can afford it.. i mean, if it's the police or what, then it's ok.. but the thought of someone i dont know might be watching me gives me the creeps..

I don't believe that it's ok for the police to be able to watch me anywhere and everywhere.
It's not ok for ANYONE.

B|