Laytonville: 38 people Busted!

[Skip]

Some of you may know some of the individuals involved...

During the dates of 09/22/2009 to 09/24/2009 Law Enforcement conducted a large multi agency marijuana eradication and investigation operation. The raids were lead by the Sheriff's marijuana investigative team and COMMET. Assisting in the operation were agents from the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, CAMP, DEA, ICE, California Parole, Mendocino County Probation.

The raids were a result in a series of investigations of large scale marijuana growing operations in the Laytonville Area. The investigations were from citizens reports as well as cases developed from over-flights conducted by law enforcement.

Tuesday 09/22/2009 four search Warrants were served in the Spy Rock, Iron Peak, Woodman Canyon areas. Agents arrested six individuals and eradicated 4931 marijuana plants. 80 pounds of processed marijuana and 2 ounces of hashish were seized.

During the service of the warrants the COMMET team and CAMP were working a large marijuana garden in the Branscomb Road area on Campbell Hawthorne property. 30,139 marijuana plants were eradicated on Monday and Tuesday.

Wednesday 09/23/2009 five search warrants were served in the Spyrock Road, Blue Rock Creek (George Washington Rock), and Island Mountain areas. 5610 marijuana plants were eradicated and 14 arrests were made. 2 guns and $12,980 in assets were seized. 95 pounds of processed marijuana and 30 pounds hashish was seized. The property on Island Mountain was reported due to the suspects taking large amounts of water from the Eel River. Six persons were arrested at the site with 552 large marijuana plants. A large pump feeding a four inch pipe was pumping water to a series of large tanks from the Eel River to provide for the marijuana operation. California Department of Fish and Game was on scene to investigate the water diversion. The Mendocino County District Attorney has committed to the review of this case for environmental crimes.

During the service of the warrants COMMET and CAMP were working in the Island Mountain area and eradicated 4277 marijuana plants from a large grow operation.

Thursday 09/24/2009 three search warrants were served on Bell Springs Road and DosRios Road. 3582 marijuana plants were seized and 21 people were arrested. There were 12 guns seized as well as 123 pounds of processed marijuana and 4.5 grams of cocaine.

During the operation there was one injury as a officer had a minor injury vehicle accident. All subjects were booked into the Mendocino County Jail. Some of the suspects have not been arrested with charges pending.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

It's like these guys live off of shredding other people's paychecks... if they ran out of paychecks to shred they'd have to find real work...

 

[JohnnyATL]

you cant divert a whole stream, thats going to cause questions

 

[Skip]

Turns out that the 38 busts were on Private Land!

Subject: Mendo: BREAKING NEWS: 38 arrested in pot bust(s)

from: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_13439512

BREAKING NEWS: 38 arrested in pot bust
By TIFFANY REVELLE The Daily Journal
Updated: 09/28/2009 05:12:10 PM PDT

A three-day marijuana bust netted 38 arrests last week on private properties in the northern areas of Mendocino County, as far north as Bell Springs and as far south as Dos Rios Road in Laytonville.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's office led the multi-agency raids, serving 12 search warrants and seizing 53,270 plants, 336 pounds of processed marijuana, 14 firearms and $12,980 in cash.

Lt. Rusty Noe estimated the street value of the seized plants was "in excess of $1 million."

"Last week was a culmination of what was probably months-long investigation," Sheriff Tom Allman said in a Monday telephone press conference.

A four-inch pipe found pumping water out of the Eel River on Island Mountain led authorities to do a fly-over of the area and discover a 552-plant grow on a 120-acre parcel, according to Allman.

He said there was no word for it but "obscene."

All of the seizures happened on private property, but Allman said search warrants weren't needed in "open field" searches where no structure was attached to the land.

Agents from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, federal Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state parole and county probation aided in the operation.

Allman said the cost of the operation wasn't yet known, but between 40 and 55 agents worked on the investigation each of the three days.

Noe, who prepared the Monday press release, said the charges would likely be sent to the Mendocino County District Attorney's office Monday.

Allman said of the 38 people arrested, nine had posted bail.

Tiffany Revelle can be reached at udjtr@pacific.net, or at 468-3523.

 

[pugnacious]

Any locals out in mendo know if this was a cartel operational? Or local?

 

[Skip]

Note that the officer now says the value was "in excess of $1 million". Hummm, the most recent valuations I've seen put the value at $4,000 to $5,000 a PLANT.

Shouldn't that put the value of this bust with 53,270 plants closer to $2 BILLION? Or are the feds and local law enforcement worried that they might get sued for the valuation of their crops? So now they're under reporting the value just in case...

Perhaps you don't have to know math to be a FED?

Or perhaps Laytonville pot is valued far less than what they pull from the forests?

Nah! They're just covering their asses in case of legal action, which should be taken against these kinds of raids.

What if these growers had enough recommendations behind those plants? Did they check first?

 

[mean mr.mustard]

My guess is that if it's on private property they had multiple illegal searches... where's our Constitution??!?!?!!

 

[MrBomDiggitty]

All those people, plants, processed marjuana... and only $12k in cash? Would have expected a bigger paper haul than that out of all them farmers.

 

[Billy Burroughs]

well id be willing to bet the feds done there homework on these busts the feds gotta 98% conviction rate or something like that they dont loose so to answer the last ? im confident they checked that avenue before they checked any other leo isn't as dumb as most ppl believe him to be by the amounts of the busts id say karma bit someone in the ass they had a 700 million dollar seizure here in the vegas area in henderson to be exact and it didnt even make the news until like 3-4 days later whn the las vegas sun reported that it had happened lol no wonder most of the people that live in this state just clamer in fear of there own government can't be reporting about that there murder weed

 

[Ipsissimus]

average of 1401 plants per person involved.

that's a lot of recommendations to be legit, no?

 

[Skip]

Well they did recently reduced the # of plants allowed in Mendo from like 100 to 6 I think. So it wouldn't really take that many (Eddy Lepp had 1600 ppl signed on).

The FEDs wont bust grows under 100 plants I think. Until the thing is LEGALIZED, I'd say don't go over 100 unless you want to be targeted.

But take an average collective in California. I'd say it would number in the hundreds. So let's say 500 members x 6 would allow 3000 plants to be in flower, possibly more in veg.

See this is where the battlefield is, where state and Federal laws conflict BIG TIME! FEDs not only don't like the big grows, they don't like it being SOLD either. But that doesn't seem the case here because they said they found the sites by flyovers and complaints of neighbors.

So if they can backup their grows with recommendations, they might be subject to fines for taking the river water without a permit, but what else have they done illegal I'd like to know?

Supposedly, under the new Obama rules, the FEDs won't bust grows that conform to California law.

There could be a BIG LAWSUIT coming out of this. I imagine they hit some big grows, all on PRIVATE PROPERTY.

And if they didn't find a huge haul of money, it might find its way into fighting this in court. Let's hope these ppl band together, pool their resources and fight these busts in court as far as necessary to stop the endless harassment that California is currently enduring from the Feds.

So let's all value that haul at $2 Billion so that the Feds & locals who were involved can be sued for that much.

And if there are recommendations too, each individual medical marijuana patient can sue not only the agencies involved but the INDIVIDUAL LEOs too to recover their losses. Imagine hundreds of separate lawsuits against each LEO who participated, or a class action suit in civil court.

Win one big case like that in court, recover the actual damages from those individuals involved, and you'll see LEOs very reluctant to carry out such operations in the future....

Don't want your California collective medical grow busted by the FEDS? Then LEGALIZE IT NOW!

 

[Ipsissimus]

excellent post, k+

Win one big case like that in court, recover the actual damages from those individuals involved, and you'll see LEOs very reluctant to carry out such operations in the future....

That's the attitude!

 

[IE2KS_KUSH]

With all due respect Skip, I think you are assuming alot, when obviously there aren't alot of details, as per whether they had recs etc...

You don't need a warrant if it is in plain sight on private property, and recs don't justify stealing water, which they were. You don't own rivers or streams just because they run through your land.

They also won't be able to sue, it's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW PERIOD, REGARDLESS OF THE OBAMA LIP SERVICE. When is the last time anyone has heard of a law enforcement agency being sued for upholding the law? Never.

Too bad for those involved, hope the best for them, but it looks like they are up shit creek.

 

[Skip]

With all due respect Skip, I think you are assuming alot, when obviously there aren't alot of details, as per whether they had recs etc...

You don't need a warrant if it is in plain sight on private property, and recs don't justify stealing water, which they were. You don't own rivers or streams just because they run through your land.

They also won't be able to sue, it's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW PERIOD, REGARDLESS OF THE OBAMA LIP SERVICE. When is the last time anyone has heard of a law enforcement agency being sued for upholding the law? Never.

Too bad for those involved, hope the best for them, but it looks like they are up shit creek.

Local law enforcement isn't upholding local law, they are defying it. Therefore they can be sued. If it was stated, as indeed it was that policy is not to bust California legal grows then they have to prove these grows were illegal by California law. If they can't they should be sued.

And that again, is why we must change California law. It's insane letting every county & city decide who gets medicine, and who doesn't. It's all about BIG PHARMA protecting their profits. They should be sued too for lobbying to keep our medicine illegal and putting us in jail.

It's this ongoing conspiracy between the gov't & corporations to deny us our rights that we must fight with all means possible.

 

[IE2KS_KUSH]

Local law enforcement isn't upholding local law, they are defying it. Therefore they can be sued. If it was stated, as indeed it was that policy is not to bust California legal grows then they have to prove these grows were illegal by California law. If they can't they should be sued.

And that again, is why we must change California law. It's insane letting every county & city decide who gets medicine, and who doesn't. It's all about BIG PHARMA protecting their profits. They should be sued too for lobbying to keep our medicine illegal and putting us in jail.

It's this ongoing conspiracy between the gov't & corporations to deny us our rights that we must fight with all means possible.

I agree, but I believe this was a joint operation, and my guess is they will get federal charges, not state or local charges, regardless of who was helping the feds. Not saying it is right, just what it is.
As far as the "policy",
means squat legally, and if they bring a lawsuit against the feds, it will be laughed out of court.

They should be prosecuted and forced to pay for the water they were stealing. JMHO

 

[Skip]

If marijuana growing was completely legal no one would need to steal water.

By keeping it illegal, so many other "illegal" acts occur that wouldn't otherwise.

Stealing power, dangerous wiring, polluting public forests would all stop.

Farms big and small will grow and prosper, paying taxes, creating new jobs, helping the economy, just as they do now in some areas of California.

Those who worry about losing biz or profits when it goes legal, just need to adjust their biz model. There will always be a market for quality genetics and clones, probably several times larger than it is now. Think about that...

 

[Madrus Rose]

EarthDance held up there just ended this weekend ....suppose these grows have been known by the local cops for & feds for yrs already , might say they have been " pushing the river" & running a high risk continuing opps in such a high profile area for so many yrs . They're bound to swoop in sometime & do a "knock back" .

 

[Jnugg]

You don't need a warrant if it is in plain sight on private property, and recs don't justify stealing water, which they were. You don't own rivers or streams just because they run through your land.

They also won't be able to sue, it's AGAINST FEDERAL LAW PERIOD, REGARDLESS OF THE OBAMA LIP SERVICE. When is the last time anyone has heard of a law enforcement agency being sued for upholding the law? Never.

Too bad for those involved, hope the best for them, but it looks like they are up shit creek.

I agree,just becuase water floes through your property it does not be long to you.Just because I live on the beach,doesn't mean the beach out back my house is mine.

I also agree on the second comment...YOU CANNOT SUE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OR AGENCIES period.

 

[Skip]

Who says you can't sue the DEA?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/17/pip.hempregulation/index.html

 

[mrdizzle]

no real surprise there, 53,000plants is like a sore thumb, sticks out