Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
On Monday, December 16, 2019, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Bureau, Cannabis Compliance Team, with the assistance of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, executed a series of search warrants in Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles County. These search warrants were authored after an extensive investigation into a commercial cannabis cultivation business on 102-acre parcel on Cebada Canyon Road. Through the investigation, it was discovered that the business had obtained several provisional cannabis licenses from the State of California through fraudulent means.
The search warrant on Cebada Canyon Road resulted in the seizure of over a million dollars of cannabis, and cannabis related products. The warrants served in Los Angeles County yielded evidence that is part of this ongoing investigation. While the investigation is continuing, initial charges of 11358(c) H&S- illegal cultivation of marijuana (felony), 115 PC- falsifying public records or documents (felony) and 182 PC- conspiracy (felony) have been requested against Eli Sheiman and Mariette Wingard.
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.
So glad the Sheriff’s Dept is going after these money -hungry -greed -based growers… Take ’em down!
I am actually against marijuana and believe it has more negative affects than people are admitting. However, what is the difference between legal and illegal product? Some bureaucrat getting paid and filing permits? It’s all a racket by local, county and state governments. They add no value to the end product but if you don’t pay off the government, your crop can get destroyed. What are growers going to do, complain to the Feds? So much corruption and bribery out in the open it’s sickening. As soon as government realized they could tax it, they gave up their whole anti-drug shtick.
The agricultural grow of the greedy and opportunists.
Legal is tested and has strict limits on pesticides. Illegal could have anything on it. They say those backcountry grows are using pesticides and herbicides that are poisoning the streams and killing the wildlife. Besides destroying the environment with plant clearing and stream diversions. If you care about organic, you have to buy legal or grow your own.
Puff puff, and Wingardium leviOsa!
The million dollar question…
Who gets the million dollars?
Better question is who has the million dollars to spend on pot. Hope it is not the exact same group that complains they can’t afford to live in Santa Barbara, yet willingly part with millions of discretionary dollars just to get high. Weird values.
One million dollars = .00025 of the $40 billion/year Cannabis market, in California alone. Colorado does $2 billion/ year with a population of 2 million, California has nearly 40 million residents. Do the math.
this is just theft by the government.
The same question is asked, if your beloved corner liquor store gets caught selling to a minor, do they come and steal all of their liquor and destroy it? No. If an organic farmer is caught using pesticides, are his crops taken and destroyed? No. This is wrong on so many levels, it’s head spinning…