$1.19 billion worth of marijuana seized in massive drug bust in California

[ripcord]

Source: CBS News

Authorities in Southern California have seized more than 16 tons of marijuana worth an estimated $1.19 billion, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials said Wednesday. The 10-day sting is the largest eradication of illegal marijuana cultivations in the history of the department.

The operation, which began on June 8, resulted in 22 felony arrests, 109 misdemeanor arrests, and 19 arrests from water theft enforcement teams, officials said. More than 200 locations were served with search warrants. Nearly 375,000 marijuana plants and 33,480 pounds of harvested marijuana were seized, along with 65 vehicles, 180 animals and $28,000.

While California legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2018, illegal grows of the crop have been on the rise in the state. Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Narcotic Bureau identified over 500 illegal marijuana cultivations in 2021, increasing from the 150 identified in 2020, according to a June statement. Detectives found that the average size per cultivation at farms increased to 15 greenhouses, up from eight per farm in the year prior.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the impacts of illegal marijuana cultivation by cartels include water theft, human trafficking, pollution and threats to safety and security

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marijuana-seized-california-billion-illegal-cultivation/

---

Shut them down, lock them up and get these criminals out of our desert.

[underpants]

1. Naw man

[hunter]

2. The rules for legal commercial grows are too strict and the taxes too high.

These illegal growers fill the unnecessarily large void between home growers and legal commercial production.

The laws need to be tweaked a bit.

Is anyone out in the desert stealing water to grow tobacco or brew beer illegally?

[melm00se]

6. I remember when

Last edited Thu Jul 8, 2021, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

"Legal marijuana can be taxed", they said.

"Legal marijuana can be regulated", they said.

Now that it is approaching complete legalization, the cry now is that "taxes are too high" and "regulations are too strict".

[sarisataka]

9. Funny how that seems to have been forgotten nt

[hunter]

13. I've got no personal interest at all in the cannabis business.

Regulated markets all work pretty much the same way. There's nothing special about cannabis.

It could as well be petroleum or milk.

[fescuerescue]

34. Sounds like progress to me

Before the tax revenue was zero. Before the regulation on it was zero (other than no!)

Now we have regulations on it and tax revenue.


It does sounds like some adjustments need to be made. Other states such as Colorado seem to have gotten it right.

It's ok. Laws can be amended.

[progressoid]

40. Anything that is taxed will also be illegally sold.

This isn't limited to weed. Tobacco and tax stamps are one of the most counterfeited products in the US.

NYC alone loses over a billion in tax revenue every year to fake tax stamps on counterfeit cigarettes.

[Marrah_Goodman]

11. I know a legal grower who started early on.

Let's just say he is not wanting for anything.

[The Mouth]

14. All I know is that the rat bastard growers up here in the north

fuck up every stream and forest they grow in. Traps, poisons, stream diversions.

I love cannabis, but I *HATE* these illegal growers; I don't care what you are doing, if you fuck the environment you need to go to jail for a *long* time and lose everything you ever owned. I don't give a damn if it's somebody from south of the border, some opportunistic tweaker or a big oil company exec, they should be treated as the worst of criminals, no excuses, no mercy.

[C Moon]

16. I didn't know that was going on. Thanks.

[hunter]

24. I agree with you 100%

I'll add factory farm meat to the list, especially those "farmers" who won't even follow very minimal regulations concerning animal welfare or environmental protections.

Factory meat and dairy farms that abuse animals and pollute waterways should be aggressively prosecuted and their top executives treated "as the worst of criminals, no excuses, no mercy."

[MrModerate]

19. I'm not sure that the void between home growers and dispensaries...

should be filled. Certainly not by ecologically damaging grows on public or private land.

[hunter]

27. Agriculture is always destructive.

Fields of GMO corn and soy, drenched in pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers, are some of the most desolate places on earth. These are biological deserts, land destroyed to produce factory farm meat and dairy products, or worse, fuel ethanol.

Personally, I think legally produced cannabis, beer, and even tobacco, are lesser moral hazards than cheap bacon.

[ripcord]

37. They don't allow any agriculture here because it is the desert

Why would pot be different than any other agricultural crop?

[hunter]

38. It's not. And yes, there's agriculture in the high desert.

http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/Agriculture/High_Desert_Crops/

[ripcord]

39. Those are growers who have been here for over 100 years and have water rights

There are no tomatoes or lettuce here why should pot be any different?

[hunter]

41. Hey. I don't like the illegal pot farmers any more than you do.

Hell, I don't even respect the "water rights" claimed and sold by people long dead.

[AllaN01Bear]

22. mj was kept illeagal by the govt after prohibition because of competiion with the

beer companies .

[Shoeless Louis]

30. This is new to me, but it sounds like we could make a big difference in this area. n/t

[Bayard]

3. 180 animals....

Someone enlighten me. Producing fertilizer? Guard dogs?

[Jedi Guy]

15. Some from column A, some from column B would be my guess. N/T

[Hekate]

25. Vicious dogs guarding the investment, in addition to traps and guns. You do NOT want to hike...

…into “their” territory, thinking your biggest hazards are bears and rattlesnakes while you commune with Nature.

[ripcord]

32. They have armed men closing down roads

They tell people that section is closed and they have to go around to get to their houses.

[droidamus2]

4. Question

Knowing the history of the police being less than honest about cannabis are we sure these were all illegal grows? Is there any chance that in the name of taking down some illegal grows they swooped in and cut down a bunch of legal grows as well That would be the old, 'oops we thought that was the illegal one we were supposed to cut down. Our bad!'. Either way they would be cutting into the production for the legal medical or recreational markets. In my opinion the police will never totally accept that cannabis is now legal and will keep on vilifying it and harassing growers and sellers any time they can.

[ripcord]

8. There are no legal grows in that area

They are not giving permits to grow in the desert for some odd reason.

[fescuerescue]

35. Sounds like that's the problem

So instead of having a few legal grows, they have a ton of illegal ones.

[ripcord]

36. They don't allow tomatoes, cucumbers or lettuce to be grown here either because of the lack of water

Legalized pot is no different than any other crop but criminals will always ignore the law even when it hurts the environment.

[Jedi Guy]

10. "In my opinion the police will never totally accept that cannabis is now legal"

Not so much. Most cops don't give a shit about pot for personal use and haven't for a long, long time. Even before many DAs declined to prosecute people who had an amount for personal use, many cops simply didn't care. It just wasn't worth their time given the other things going on. It wasn't uncommon for a cop who caught someone with a few joints to either make them throw it away or just ignore it altogether. Either way, it rarely resulted in a citation, much less an arrest. If it did, odds are it was an ancillary charge tacked on to other charges.

For instance, when I was in college over 20 years ago, I was hanging out with a girl I knew and we'd smoked up. There was a knock on her door, and she called out, "Come in." The door opens and in walks a Tucson cop. The place reeks of pot, there's pot on the coffee table along with the bong, we're both high as kites. The cop says, "Hey Sage, just dropping off that paperwork for that car accident you were in." Being dumb, I asked him if he just didn't see the pot or what. He replied, "I don't care. You're in here smoking up with your girlfriend, eating Doritos and watching TV. You're not hurting anybody. I've got bigger fish to fry." I realize this is anecdotal, but it illustrates the point I'm making. Later on when I worked as a dispatcher, the vast majority of the cops I knew shared this guy's view.

Now if we'd been caught with a few pounds on the coffee table, things likely would've played out very differently. Possession with intent to distribute is another kettle of fish altogether, and most cops treat it as such.

So no, I don't think the police at large particularly give a damn that pot is trending towards nationwide legalization. The for-profit prison industry, on the other hand, will fight legalization tooth and nail for obvious reasons.

[Marcuse]

21. The officer has the discretion to profile and punish. He could have ruined your whole day.

[hunter]

29. That happens a lot to people who are not white.

[droidamus2]

46. I understand

Now that I think about my older brother used to be a county sheriff in California and I remember smoking up with him and a guy that was a highway patrolman. I suspect how tight ass the cops are depends on where you are. I was in teh middle of the Emerald Triangle so other than doing the big raids they didn't really care.

[Jedi Guy]

47. I was in Tucson, AZ. So lots of drugs, including the really bad shit, coming across the border.

So that probably had a lot to do with most of them being pretty laid back about pot. And yeah, I absolutely believe some of them smoked up. They only really cared about enough that showed intent to distribute and as you pointed out, the big raids on the grow ops.

If it goes legal nationwide (and it eventually will), I doubt most cops will care. They've got bigger fish to fry.

[gldstwmn]

44. They never really release much information about these busts

so who knows? You have a good point.

[mn9driver]

5. Maybe I'm way out of date with marijuana prices

But unless I made a math error, those numbers work out to be $2324.00 per ounce. Seems kinda spendy.

[KS Toronado]

7. You had no math error as I came up with $2324 also

unless we were both wrong. Anyway if it costs that much, must be some killer stuff.

[Jedi Guy]

12. That figure may be the overall total of all property seized.

So it'd include the vehicles, the cash, the unharvested plants, etc. etc. If not, then I'd love to get my hands on some of that stuff. For $2324/ounce, that shit had better put me in orbit.

[LiberatedUSA]

28. $500 per ounce...

...is the killer stuff. Over $2,000 an ounce? I don’t think we are talking weed prices anymore.

[MrModerate]

18. Someone's an order of magnitude off, with dispensary cannabis going for around $200/oz in CA. n/t

[MrModerate]

17. "180 animals..." ??? n/t

[BradBo]

20. Calis just creating a marijuana underground with bad actors.

[Hekate]

31. 'Scuse me? We are not "creating" any such thing. The Mexican drug cartels have been here decades...

…and I think I speak for millions of voters when I say that we had hoped they would have been put out of business when we voted to legalize pot. Obviously not, the enterprising bastards.

[Auggie]

23. Water theft, human trafficking, and pollution are not cool

[Hekate]

26. No, they are not. I thought we were going to put the GD cartels out of business. nt

[ripcord]

33. They just had to replace the fire hydrant by our place

It had been stripped by these people stealing water, they also don't use backflow devices and use the same containers to haul water as chemicals. You can can actually drive by and watch people steal water, they are easy to spot since they don't use the mandatory meter or backflow device when filling, it is so blatant.

[Javaman]

42. watch the documentary "murder mountain" on netflix.

there is so much more to this than you realize.

the restrictive laws about pot in CA are creating a massive underground network that is really horrible.

arresting these people and, quite frankly, this small amount of pot, will do absolutely nothing.

in this day in age where it's big business, this amount of pot is small potatoes

[gldstwmn]

43. Narcotic bureau? If you want to charge them with

water theft then fine. How much did this sting cost the taxpayers? Someone needs to do a cost benefit analysis on these outdated drug war busts. Now water theft on the other hand, California is in dire need of water so that is something that needs to be looked at. I'd rather see them go after whomever is putting fentanyl in street drugs.

[KG]

45. bummer, dude.