Cannabis bust in San Bernardino leads to the arrest of 34 people |

An ongoing operation in southern California culminated on Sunday in which 34 people were arrested and more than 33,000 marijuana plants were confiscated.

The sheriff’s department in San Bernardino County, California said “Operation Hammerstrike” took place between the 1. “

The department said it was week 10 of Operation Hammerstrike.

Together they have “issued 26 search warrants in various locations in Lucerne Valley, San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms, Wonder Valley, Helendale, Newberry Springs, Pinon Hills, Phelan, Daggett, Barstow and Rancho Cucamonga” to arrest 34 suspects and 33,189 marijuana plants to seize 8,588 pounds of processed marijuana, nine guns and more than $ 24,000 in cash.

These suspects “have been cited or charged with growing cannabis, over six plants, possession for the sale of marijuana, illegal water disposal and possession of a firearm with a serial number deleted,” the department said.

In addition, investigators said they “wiped out a total of 211 greenhouses that were found near” [those] Locations as well as two indoor locations ”and that they“ weakened an electrical bypass ”.

“MET staff had received numerous complaints about the large outdoor and indoor marijuana growing in these areas,” the sheriff’s department said. “The research found that cannabis cultivation was inconsistent with California’s Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) and the San Bernardino County’s Ordinance Prohibiting Commercial Cannabis Activities.

“San Bernardino County has a law banning commercial cannabis activities, which includes growing marijuana plants outdoors. The sheriff’s Gangs / Narcotics Division will continue to enforce California cannabis laws and San Bernardino County regulations governing cannabis cultivation and distribution. People found guilty of violating state law and district ordinance will be fined, prosecuted and property confiscated. “

California voters legalized the use and sale of recreational cannabis by passing a poll, Proposition 64, in 2016. But five years later, the illegal market in the Golden State continues to thrive, and the state is still addressing this problem.

A National Public Radio report over the weekend found that “fully legal weed makes up only a fraction of the state’s marijuana market, with some experts estimating that 80 to 90 percent of cannabis sales in California still fall within a legal gray area.”

NPR interviewed Amanda Chicago Lewis, a reporter who covers the cannabis industry, who said that “the problem is that if you are a seller, if you are a breeder it is expensive to enter the legal market,” and that “It is expensive to participate a consumer.” The unregulated market, on the other hand, hardly presents barriers to market entry for potential sellers, as do cheaper products.

The trend has also emerged in other places, such as Canada, where recreational marijuana is also legal.

That means surgeries like those in San Bernardino County last week in California are still common.

Last month, state attorney general Rob Bonta said California law enforcement agencies destroyed more than a million marijuana plants this year as part of the so-called “anti-marijuana campaign”.

“Illegal and unlicensed marijuana cultivation is bad for our environment, bad for our economy, and bad for the health and safety of our communities,” Bonta said at the time.

To that end, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department warned that property owners “who grow marijuana or are aware that their tenants are growing marijuana on their property are also subject to civil or criminal penalties in violation of state law and local ordinances can”.