California officials blow up giant underground pot farm

Law enforcement officials in San Bernardino County, California have filed charges against 11 people after police discovered a massive underground cannabis cultivation operation. At a news conference Monday, San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson and Sheriff Shannon Dicus announced that the group faces charges of growing marijuana, violating environmental laws and possessing marijuana for sale.

Law enforcement officials estimated the illegal market value of the cannabis products seized from the Newberry Springs property at $9 million, although estimates by police and prosecutors have come under fire in recent months for being unrealistically inflated.

The charges against the defendants relate to “an industrial-scale underground illegal marijuana cultivation facility in Newberry Springs, a processing facility and other properties used in connection with the sale, manufacture and distribution of cannabis,” the statement said of law enforcement officials.

California Property searched twice

According to arrest records from the sheriff’s department, police first served a search warrant on the property in the small, desert town of California in August 2020. At the time, law enforcement officers discovered eight greenhouses containing approximately 2,000 cannabis plants and more than 100 pounds of processed marijuana on the property. The then owner of the property has been identified as Cheng Lin, who also faces charges of conspiracy. Two defendants arrested during the raid on the site have also been charged.

Prosecutors allege that after the initial raid, Lin sold the property to a second person, Qiaoyan Liu, who is also charged with conspiracy. On March 3 of this year, the police searched the property a second time. During this action, officers from the Sheriff’s Department cannabis enforcement team discovered a large red shipping container known as a Conex box next to a local home.

“Upon searching the Conex box, deputies discovered the floor had been opened up and were able to descend into an underground bunker,” the statement said, according to a report by the Victorville Daily Press. “The bunker was 230 feet long and 60 feet wide. It was built about 15 feet underground using over 30 Conex boxes.”

The underground facility covered 14,000 square feet and contained more than 6,000 illegal cannabis plants. Deputies also discovered a reserve of 5,500 gallons of fuel to “power generators used to air the room and heal the plants,” according to Anderson.

Prosecutors also allege that “processed marijuana was found at Cheng Lin’s home, as well as a commercial lease in Cheng Lin’s name for a commercial building where law enforcement found numerous items used in marijuana cultivation and more ( 200). pounds of marijuana product.”

lawsuits filed

The district attorney is seeking a felony upgrade for the illegal cultivation charge based on a provision in state law that allows for tougher penalties for environmentally damaging activities. The defendants in that case were charged with “illegal waste disposal and willfully and grossly negligent causing of significant damage to public lands and other public resources.”

Anderson said the case is indicative of law enforcement’s response to unlicensed cannabis cultivation in the area. He also vowed to confiscate property from owners of land used to grow cannabis illegally.

“Once we can say that these properties are known to be nuisance, we will take ownership of the property,” the district attorney said Monday.

“Unless these people can rehabilitate the properties through appropriate judgments, which we may receive in this particular case, we will work with the county to try to take over that property and then sell that property,” he added. “Taxpayers should not be on the hook for the illegal behavior being committed here.”

Anderson said enforcing the laws against unlicensed cannabis cultivation protects growers who have taken the trouble, time and expense to obtain licenses to operate legitimately.

“You’re putting unfair competition on an industry that’s trying to be regulated,” Anderson said of illegal cannabis growers. He went on to compare illegal cannabis cultivation to a fake Amazon distribution warehouse.

“We have a pirated Amazon that sells illegal or counterfeit products from a warehouse that’s buried underground,” he said. “Who can compete? Jeff Bezos couldn’t compete against that.”

Eight defendants who were at the property at the time the second search warrant was served were charged in the case, including five defendants who were arrested and charged. Law enforcement officials also issued arrest warrants for six other people who were not yet in custody.