Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
At approximately 8:30 a.m. this morning, March 28, 2019, the Sheriff’s Cannabis Compliance Team (CCT) served a search warrant at 805 Beach Breaks, a marijuana dispensary located in the 1000 block of Highland Way in Grover Beach. Meanwhile the Cannabis Compliance Team conducted a search warrant at an undisclosed location in Los Alamos. The search warrants were the result of a month-long investigation. The CCT was assisted during the delivery of the search warrants by several allied agencies including the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Santa Maria Police Department’s Special Enforcement Team, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, the Grover Beach Police Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
When the CCT arrived this morning to serve the search warrant in Los Alamos, deputies located the largest marijuana growing operation they have investigated since the team formed in June of 2018. The team determined there were hundreds of thousands of illegal plants and thousands of pounds of processed marijuana ready for sale. At the Grover Beach location, deputies seized marijuana from the illegal operation and records associated with the investigation. While the investigation is still on-going, this case involves the issue of fraudulent licensing and the black-market diversion of cannabis. This diversion of cannabis into the illicit market is a public safety concern in that it doesn’t ensure the proper testing and licensing of the cannabis. It is also harmful to businesses that are complying with state and local laws and pay taxes on their proceeds.
Due to the active investigation, this is all of the information that is being released at this time.
The Santa Barbara County Cannabis Compliance Team was founded in June of 2018 and consists of personnel from many disciplines within a variety of county departments. The team primarily focuses on unlicensed and illegal cannabis operations within the county and the safety of the public. Following the approval of Proposition 64, recreational marijuana is legal. However, the law requires any person or business selling or providing marijuana to be licensed through the State of California to ensure the sale of approved and tested cannabis products with regulated and identified THC content. Additionally, the County of Santa Barbara requires that cannabis businesses must possess local land use permits and local business licenses if the operations are in the unincorporated parts of the county. More information on the state licensing and testing process can be found on the CalCannabis or Bureau of Cannabis Control websites. For information on local permitting and licensing, please visit cannabis.countyofsb.org.
This is HUGE- From the “corporate” look of their retail outlet to the massive pot growing operation that runs all along the once beautiful foothills that run behind Los Alamos…
i had copied the same excerpt, “this case involves the issue of fraudulent licensing and the black-market diversion of cannabis. This diversion of cannabis into the illicit market is a public safety concern in that it doesn’t ensure the proper testing and licensing of the cannabis.” This IS 100% pure bullshit! Who authorized this “task force”? I would REALLY like to know. If this is all put together by our Sheriff, then he needs to be removed. This is theft. By the sheriff department. Just like Rinconer pointed out, our FDA allows all sorts of extremely hazardous materials into our water supply, and food supply, but gods forbid if someone smokes some weed that was grown by someone without….a license! OMG!!! Fuhktards. Pure and simple, this is piracy done with a badge. I have asked this question several times, if Joe Blow that owns ABS Liquor store gets caught selling and carrying booze without the proper permits, do the gestapo come in and smash and take? No, they write a fine and move on. So why is the sheriff department so incredibly anti weed still? You lost, get over it and stop harassing people over dried flowers and their extracts. Morning glory seeds will get you high AF, why aren’t they out there pulling weeds and tearing those plants up. Several other herbs that grow locally and naturally can give you a buzz too, why aren’t they regulating them as well? This is a waste of my tax dollars and a waste of resources. How about do your job better and catch some real criminals…..not farmers and patients and pot heads. Just lame…
If Joe Blow was selling moonshine at his liquor store the liquor would be poured out and when the still was found it would be smashed and the cooks would be arrested.
“This diversion of cannabis into the illicit market is a public safety concern in that it doesn’t ensure the proper testing and licensing of the cannabis. ”
100% b.s. What safety concern?
Make sure that the growers don’t include Roundup with Glyosphate that is already in nearly all of our food and vaccines?
Make sure that the draconian and unprecedented levels of taxe$ piled on from greedy City, County, State & Federal bureaucrats?
Eighty years ago we were told by the Government in Reefer Madness that if a Black man smoked weed he would lose all control, and have to rape the closest white woman. Eighty years later were are told it’s for our own safety. Neither is true.
The DARE crowd cannot let a lifetime of lies and propaganda go. So our LEO’s get dressed up in their warrior costumes, arm themselves to fight a non-existent enemy and pretend they’re good guys while making 150k a year. They have to keep the allusion going or they’ll lose some grant. A total waste of public resources on every single measure. Can you imagine if the Sheriff’s office treated every regulatory violation with the same force? We’d have tamale ladies being held at gun point, we’d have construction sites raided at dawn with full armor and weapons drawn we’d have fisherman taken by swat teams… Left the walk-in open and potentially spoiled the meat? Here comes the BearCat to knock down your door and take your kids! All in the name of public safety… Right?