The Lassen County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) released new information Tuesday about an investigation into an illegal marijuana cultivation operation in northern Lassen County. Officers flew over several suspected cultivation sites and determined that marijuana was actively being grown. LCSO said none of these grows were licensed by the State of California or Lassen County.
The aerial reconnaissance confirmed active cultivation across the parcels under suspicion. The findings prompted coordinated search warrant operations across the region. Personnel from multiple agencies took part in the enforcement effort.
During the weeks of Aug. 7-11, personnel from the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office, the California Department of Justice’s Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis (EPIC) program and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) executed search warrants on 47 separate parcels.
LCSO said officers located around 151,177 marijuana plants during the operation. Officers also seized 19,973.27 pounds of processed marijuana.
Eleven firearms were seized from cultivation sites during the operation. The scale of the seizures points to the size of the unlicensed growing network. The search warrants spanned dozens of properties across northern Lassen County.
Officers also located thousands of pounds of garbage and dangerous pesticides at the sites. Officers believe the pesticides were affecting nearby streams. The environmental damage adds to the list of concerns raised by the illegal grows.
The owners of record for the properties will be taxed based on the size of each grow. The tax action follows the identification of the unlicensed cultivation sites. LCSO has not indicated whether additional enforcement actions are planned.
The investigation highlights the continued presence of large-scale illegal cultivation in Lassen County. The operation involved coordination between local, state and federal agencies.
Further details about the investigation were included in the information released Tuesday. The seized marijuana, plants, firearms and hazardous materials were documented as part of the operation. The case remains part of LCSO’s ongoing enforcement against illicit cultivation.
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