The Merced Sheriff’s Office said it arrested two men Wednesday on home invasion and other charges in an alleged break-in involving a large quantity of medicinal marijuana. One suspect remains at large. On Wednesday morning, the sheriff’s office said it got a call about a home invasion in the Beachwood area of Merced. Deputies were told that three armed robbers forced their way into a home, made the victim, a man in his early 20s, lie on the floor and demanded the victim’s medical marijuana. The house was being used as a dispensary for medical [...]
Steve Avalos has been trying to bring a medical marijuana dispensary to Atwater for a while now. Avalos, himself a medical marijuana patient, was close to opening the business — he even leased a building at 221 Airpark Road. “As patients we shouldn’t have to seek our medicine illegally because it is California law,” he said. “There’s no reason for us to break the law to buy the drugs on the street.” However, Avalos, might have to wait a little longer, Yesenia Amaro reports in the Merced Sun-Star. On Monday night, the Atwater City Council [...]
The medicinal marijuana dispensary that set up shop in Los Banos this past summer is gone. In the past week, Hollister-based Purple Cross Rx removed its furniture and supplies from the suite it was renting at 225 N. Mercey Springs Road. City Attorney William Vaughn said it appears the eviction process may have concluded. “I don’t know whether they reached a settlement. All I know is there were no other court proceedings that were calendared,” Vaughn said. Purple Cross Rx came to Los Banos in July despite an ordinance that prohibits such businesses in city [...]
DELHI — Narcotics agents found 550 marijuana plants and arrested two men hiding in secret compartments underneath a double-wide trailer home that was hollowed out for the sole purpose of growing marijuana indoors, Merced County sheriff’s officials said. Deputies on Tuesday arrested Shao Fan, 28, and Peng Chan, 31, both of San Francisco, said sheriff’s spokesman deputy Tom MacKenzie. He said agents found the indoor marijuana garden at the home in the 14000 block of Second Avenue South, east of Highway 99. Investigators initially responded to a report of possible utility theft at the home, [...]
Bud’s note: This is today’s must-read for the “pot is legal enough” crowd. Your “No” vote on Prop. 19 is a “Yes” vote on allowing this sort of senseless violence to continue. How many people have to die until you see that? =========== Luis Valencia kidnapped a woman and burned her alive three years ago this week — all for a pound of stolen pot. Now he’ll ultimately grow old and die in state prison for his vicious crime, Victor A. Patton reports in the Merced Sun-Star. Judge John Kirihara sentenced the 27-year-old illegal immigrant [...]
Two men busted during an investigation into a $47.8 million pot operation in Atwater have been indicted on federal charges for allegedly growing the illicit crop. A grand jury on Thursday returned a three-count indictment charging Juvenal Paredes Sanchez, 36, and Jose Miguel Lizarraga Lopez, 22, on suspicion of conspiring to cultivate marijuana, cultivating marijuana and possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, according to Lauren Horwood, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, Eastern District of California. The pair was arrested Aug. 28 after agents with the Merced/Mariposa High Intensity Drug Task Force found around [...]
A drug task force in Mariposa and Merced counties found its biggest marijuana growing operation so far this year on Saturday near Atwater. The High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force found 47,800 marijuana plants on the 8000 block of Atwater Jordan Road, southwest of Atwater. Merced Sun-Star coverage The plants were hidden in an 8-acre corn field so as not to be seen from the air, the Fresno Bee reports. If allowed to grow to maturity, the plants would have had a street value of $478 million, authorities said. Officers from several agencies arrested two [...]
Aug 022010
A 30-year-old man was taken into custody Saturday after deputies discovered five marijuana gardens near Snelling, north of Merced in the Sierra foothills Pablo Santa Cruz was arrested after he was seen running away from the scene, near Cox Ferry and Robinson roads. Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Tom MacKenzie said Santa Cruz was staying at a makeshift camp, tending to a garden. A total of 8,034 marijuana plants were destroyed as a result of the bust, with a street value of $8 million, the Merced Sun-Star reports. It took 11 deputies eight hours to eradicate all [...]
LIVINGSTON — The Livingston City Council made it clear where it stands on the issue of medical marijuana dispensaries, passing ordinances that move to temporarily and soon permanently ban them. Two items on the agenda dealt with the issue. The first, an ordinance extending a moratorium passed April 20 for another 10 months and 15 days to cover the gap until the ban can be made permanent, passed unanimously. The second item moves to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries completely and was also passed unanimously, the Merced Sun-Star reports. Both motions were passed quickly with little [...]
DELHI — Three people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of marijuana cultivation after a Merced County sheriff’s deputy on patrol spotted part of their illicit crop. Nubia Madero, 20, Elizabeth Valencia, 32, and Oracio Figueroa, 31, were taken into custody after deputies and agents with the Merced/Mariposa High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Team served a search warrant at a residence in the 16000 block of Summit Way in Delhi. Authorities learned of the marijuana plants after Deputy Patrick Heany was driving by the residence on patrol around 5 a.m., the Merced Sun-Star reports. Someone [...]
Reading is cool; interacting is better