Authorities raid 45-ton, $100-million marijuana stash in San Bernardino County
- The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department this week announced the seizure of more than 90,000 pounds of marijuana in the Hesperia area.
- The stash is worth an estimated $100 million, authorities say.
California regulations allow residents aged 21 and over to legally raise up to six cannabis plants at home for their personal use.
Warehousing tens of thousands of pounds remains decidedly off-limits, though.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department this week announced the seizure of more than 90,000 pounds of marijuana from a property in the Hesperia area.
Sheriff’s deputies from the marijuana enforcement team executed a search warrant Monday at a 5-acre ranch in an isolated area in the 5000 block of Honeyhill Road.
On the property, deputies discovered 3,000 black trash bags inside a 120-by-40-foot metal building, according to authorities. There were so many bags inside that they were piled 12 feet high, the sheriff’s department said.
County leaders and developers see Bloomington residents — many of whom are immigrants and more than two-thirds of whom speak a language other than English at home — as “less willing to fight,” said Alicia Aguayo, communications manager for The People’s Collective for Environmental Justice.
Each bag contained processed marijuana and weighed 30 to 50 pounds, officials estimated.
It took sheriff’s personnel — with help from county code enforcement and officers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — two days and 51 truckloads to haul away the processed marijuana. The stash is worth an estimated $100 million, authorities said.
No arrests have yet been made, and the investigation is ongoing.
The sheriff’s department did not immediately say whether the marijuana will be destroyed.
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