The largest indoor marijuana operation ever discovered in Stanislaus County was busted by local, state and federal officers Monday. A barn at 10815 S. Carpenter Road in Crows Landing was producing about $2 million worth of marijuana every three months, according to local law enforcement. Six men were apprehended at the property Monday, Marijke Rowland reports in the Modesto Bee. The men, all from the Bay Area, were arrested and booked at the Stanislaus County Jail on suspicion of possession, cultivation and sales of marijuana; conspiracy; and weapons charges. Law enforcement officials were tipped off [...]
WASHINGTON — America’s teens are using more marijuana and less alcohol, according to an annual government study of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders across the country. Some 6.1 percent of high-school seniors reported using marijuana this year, up from 5.2 percent in 2009, according to the Monitoring the Future survey released by the National Institutes of Health. Marijuana use by 10th-graders climbed from 2.8 percent to 3.3 percent, and for eighth-grade students it edged up from 1.0 percent to 1.2 percent, the Associated Press reports in the Sacramento Bee. “These high rates of marijuana use during [...]
Sacramento County sheriff’s detectives have arrested two suspects in connection with a fatal shooting they allege stemmed from a marijuana deal in October. Accused of killing 35-year-old Steven Carmassi on Oct. 29 are 21-year-old Dejohng Mariedenie Taylor of Citrus Heights and 24-year-old Latics Marcus Collins of Sacramento, said sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran. Both were arrested Thursday night after they voluntarily met with homicide detectives for questioning, Curran told the Sacramento Bee. Later that night, they were booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of murder and attempted robbery, according to booking records. The [...]
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s largest-ever seizure of marijuana packaged for sale is even bigger than the original estimate of 105 tons and probably belonged to the powerful Sinaloa cartel, authorities said Tuesday. The government so far had counted 15,000 packages – 5,000 more than first announced after the seizure during early-morning raids Monday in the border city of Tijuana, said Alejandro Poire, President Felipe Calderon’s security spokesman. Authorities were still weighing the haul Tuesday to determine just how much bigger it is than originally thought, he said in an Associated Press story picked up by [...]
The Santa Monica Mountains and other rugged terrain across the region have become fertile ground for illegal marijuana growers, with authorities reporting a major uptick in the discovery and eradication of pot-growing farms. In the last year, park rangers and Los Angeles and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies have confiscated about 42,000 marijuana plants — worth $130 million — in areas under the jurisdiction of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area or the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, said Walt Young, chief operations officer for the authority. The haul is a nearly threefold increase over [...]
Oct 012010
Bud’s note: The newspapers are playing catch-up on this as they plow through the other bills on Arnold’s desk. This action alert comes from the fine folks at NORML; I’ll post more coverage as it becomes available. “Weed Wars” coverage from the Sacramento Bee “Radical” Russ Belville’s reaction in NORML’s Stash Blog San Jose Mercury News coverage Los Angeles Times coverage ========== Yesterday outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1449 — which reduces adult marijuana possession charges from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil infraction. NORML would like to thank the 2,500+ of [...]
The California Highway Patrol arrested a man in McKinleyville on Tuesday after pulling him over for reportedly talking on a cell phone, and finding more than $121,000 in cash and 55 pounds of marijuana in his car. According to a CHP press release, 33-year-old Ian Charles Mason of Jamul, in San Diego County, was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County jail for two charges of driving under the influence, possession of marijuana for sale and transportation of marijuana for sale. A CHP officer stopped Mason after reportedly seeing him on a cell phone while [...]
A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports. Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — chaired by Boxer — was stopped by a police officer Tuesday morning when he allegedly tried to “remove and conceal” a leafy green substance from his pocket during a security screening at the Constitution Avenue door of the Hart building around noon, according to [...]
CORRE COYOTE, Mexico — Times are good for the dope growers of the western Sierra Madre mountains. The army eradication squads that once hacked at the illicit marijuana fields have been diverted by the drug war that’s raging elsewhere in Mexico. The military’s retreat has delighted farmers who are sowing and reaping marijuana. Cultivation in Mexico soared 35 percent last year and is now higher than at any time in nearly two decades, the State Department says. It’s also been a boon for Mexico’s powerful organized-crime groups, Tim Johnson reports for McClatchy Newspapers in the [...]
Two men were booked into Tehama County Jail after allegedly attempting to load 127 pounds of pot into a truck they thought belonged to their supplier but actually belonged to two California Department of Fish and Game wardens. Wardens Scott Williams and Aaron Galwey were spotlighting for deer poachers in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on Monday night when a group of men approached the vehicle, Alayna Shulman reports in the Redding Record Searchlight. “Things unfolded so quickly that they immediately commanded them to keep their hands within view,” said DFG spokesman Pat Foy. “They very [...]
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