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It depends on where you are and the resources they have locally. But definitely not a marked car. Around here they use unmarked blue patrol cars, but sometimes they also use cars that they seize so it could be anything.
Look for a Crown Vic, or a Caprice with shitty little hub caps not full wheel covers, rims painted black. No trim basically a stripped down car you or your father wouldn't buy. Sometimes the LEO still put spotlights like a marked car( not to bright). Where I live the Dodges are becoming popular now that Ford stopped the Crown Vics. Anyway generally painted a crappy color cops don't pay for the fancy apaint jobs. Plus keep any eye on the rear veiw make some turns if you see the same car go for a long slow drive to nowhere. And lastly stay safe and don't talk or tell.
Unless you have street skills there's really no way to tell whether any car around you is unmarked. I've seen taxi cabs pull people over..
If you think your area is hot and there is any chance you'd be followed, I suggest finding a different location to buy your stuff, or just going the safe route and ordering online.
Here in NYC we have hydro shops where teens come in together in groups to buy gardening stuff. It's obvious they're growing pot. Some of them put bags of soil in laundry bags before heading out (the store owners help them) and many like myself just walk out with our gear in standard plastic bags, parked across the street.
If the police are worth their salt you will never see them.
I was surprised one day after leaving a hydro shop...and driving through the city a little, to see a Chevy 1500 and a Sabb both turn on flashing lights and sirens and take off down the road.
It scared me to have been right there in traffic with these two, unusual, undercover vehicles. If they would have been after me, I wouldn't have know it until it was over.
Once I was on a stakeout (don't ask) with a detective in a good sized city. Old ratty Dodge subcompact; he said they got it in a seizure. Only way you'd ever know it was a cop car was a lot of radios and a computer.
I knew an FBI agent who was in a lengthy undercover stint, he had a beard, piercings, and a BMW convertible for the job.
Around my parts I've seen lots of unmarked dodge chargers with after market rims and tinted windows, GMC/Chev SUV's, trucks (1 ton-1/4ton) and once I saw a cop driving a beat up 80's Chev Corsica with all the cop equipment inside, the cop had a fluorescent green police coat and the official hat which I recognized upon closer inspection; and then he pulled a guy over!!! I've seen that only once, but it was enough to fuel my paranoia for a while.
If you think you're being followed, take 3 left hand turns in succession and see if the car is still behind you. Of course, this won't work if they're running parallels on you.
it would be people from the drug task force, so it would be undercover. they usually drive seized cars and rotate their cars every so often, i guess based on seizures.
Could be anything. Make a bunch of unnecessary turns. Usually one or two guy with shades and a computer in the front seat. CB Radio (though now you cant even spot the antenna's). The drug task forces in most every city drive cars they seize from other crimes. Could be an obvious Crown Vic or it could be your old pot dealers 92 Chevy Truck.
in different areas cops can use cars they confiscate in order to conduct police business. auto squad in philly used to use all kinds of cars even ones with out of state plates and one headlight!
All they need to do is bag the license number, then slap a gps tracker on your car some night when you arent looking. Then they know everywhere you have been and exactly where you are now.
I've seen many undercover cops around here, many that you wouldn't expect. I've seen Nissan xterras, blazers, suburbans, f250s, dodge ram 2500s, duramax diesel chevys 3500, even saw a porshe once. Of course there are always the crown vics but it makes me uncomfortable to think I've seen all these on the road. Anyone could be one. Generally they are tinted extremely dark. As dark as mine, which is scary considering mine are 2.5%.
One time I was riding with my girl and out of no where a chevy silverado in front of us flips his lights on (which are hidden well). Every other car around us was undercover. It freaked my girl out cuz we had just been hitting the goldschlager bong 15 minutes before. I tell her to just be quiet because there is now way all these cars are after us. A total of 13 vehicles were undercover and they apprehended a suspect (which ironically happened to have 13 felonies). The undercover had dea; FBI, and tbi bullet proof vests fully auto assault rifles, smgs, and shotguns.
Scary to think that any car on the road could be undercover but here are some things to consider.
Heavily tinted windows on nice new vehicles--keep an eye on these and ensure they aren't following you.
Be situationally aware of what's going on--peripheral vision is important to use.
Learn to tail cars without being caught, the you will learn tell tale signs of a good undercover agent.
The main times to be wary are after trips to the hydro store, after suspicious meter readers, telephone guys, knock and talks, delivery of goods, visiting pot dealers (even if you do hang out), etc.
If they are after you, it's best to do what they say as it will give them less reason to use force and say you were resisting.
It's good to be alert, not sleepy, hungover, or hungry as this will affect your concentration. Maybe your paranoid but better safe than sorry. If your a small time grower it's best not to worry about it as you will die from a heart attack before your first harvest if you are too paranoid.
if you are paranoid do not go to the grow house for a few days if possible. go to a friend's house moms house drive to costco and walk around in there for a few hrs.
sometimes my friends have seen the local narco task force at 711 or someplace having a group meeting or whatever. the last time we had info...the cops in the sunset district of SF were driving a black lincoln navigator, green ford van, white dodge stratus, and a couple other random cars.
we have spotted our loca narc head detective (who just raided a friends btw)...in a bunch of cars. first it was black monte carlo, the blue crown vic, then lately during the raid it was a blue chevy impala.
and if you watch on DEA on TV, those guys be driving brand new BMWs that are pimped out..mercedes SUVs, all nice rides they swiped in raids.
there are books pigs use to train humans to become pigs that deal with surveilance and countersurveilance techniques if you are really interested. there methods are pretty basic really but you have to remember that you might not be worth their time depending on what your doing and how you've acted with precautions.
from what i gather if they think your worth their time, cops can use all kinds of complicated techniques and devices to follow your car and they can drive anything. if they think your worth it.
The shop I go to is just down the street from a bar that a friend owns. I get my stuff, spend a couple of hours in there drinking a few cokes and shooting the breeze and leave through the bar's back door down to my car which is located on a side street about a block away from the bar.