In June of this year, Lassen County Sheriff’s Office and Lassen County Code Enforcement began an investigation into the illegal cultivation of marijuana occurring in northern Lassen County. Personnel from the Sheriff’s Office flew over several suspected cultivation sites and determined that marijuana was actively being grown. It was determined that none of these grows were licensed by the State of California or the County of Lassen.
During the weeks of August 17th – 21st and September 7th – 11th, Personnel from the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office, California Department of Justice – Eradication & Prevention of Illicit Cannabis (EPIC), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) executed search warrants on 47 separate parcels.
During the execution of the search warrants, Sheriff’s Office personnel located approximately 151,177 marijuana plants and 19,973.27 pounds of processed marijuana. Eleven firearms were seized from cultivation sites during the two weeks of operations. Located at the sites were thousands of pounds of garbage and dangerous pesticides. Many of the sites were found to be diverting and polluting water from nearby streams. Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office are committed to bringing those responsible for the illegal grows to justice.
The owners of record for the properties will be taxed based on the size of each grow.
The Lassen County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the following: Lassen County Code Enforcement, Lassen County Environmental Health, Lassen County Road Department, EPIC, and BLM for their assistance with these operations.
