Interesting weed history factoid:
When Colombian came in 25 lb. bales, it was for the convenience of the mules (4-legged kind). They carried it down steep mountain paths from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. For long and treacherous night-time treks down mountain trails, 100 lb. was a reasonable load. A burlap coffee sack could hold 2 of the 25 lb. bales. That's 50 lb. on each side of the mule's pack saddle. They could walk for 2 days like that.
Sure that sounds right... I guess.
In the day's when I was in the circle.
They always came in a new Chevy Suburban pulling a U-Haul trailer. (A new and different Suburban every time). They were coming from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona. I guess ? We never knew.
They would run a loop into Michigan and then go back. Or They would go to Wisconsin also. We always thought.. ? But not over the bridge from Michigan.
It Always 3 Latino men. Always different men, never the same 3 men, ever. Not for 3 year's.
They never stayed in motels. Only stopping was for gas and food. (They always had a cooler full of food thou) Bathroom breaks were On the roll most of the time. Sometimes when they came through they might take a shower at the drop site. That was usually a house with a garage or a barn to pull into to unload. Most of the time it was the guy I worked for, in his new house. But we never knew thou, until it was time.
They always had a CB (in the day we called them export radio's, because the radio's had a lot more channels than the normal 40. In those days I was a ham radio operator in training. And I had a couple of techs that give me a big radio with lots of frequencies. We called them funny freaks.
There would be some Spanish women talking and just saying numbers for a long time... a whole lot of numbers. Putting 2+2 together later on, I suspect they were giving codes that had some kind of meaning to somebody... maybe to the traffickers who came to us. Giving them direction to where.?
They came around 10 times a year.
The bales that we got were as you said about 25lb. We would get 6 to 10 usually. I was getting my elbow's at wholesale cost of 500 to 700 per.
When the retail was 1200 to 2200 respectively during that time.