Bird’s-eye view of illegal grows
Officials have seized over 12,000 plants since May
Between the months of May and October, the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office is busy scanning the foothills from the skies and serving search warrants on properties suspected of illegally growing marijuana.
Since May this year, the department’s Marijuana Eradication Team Yuba
County, or METY, has busted 15 illegal grows in the foothills, seizing over 12,000 plants.
But not all residents are appreciative of the efforts. A scan of comments under any marijuana bust post on the department’s Facebook page garners questions about the seizures amidst legalized recreational use of marijuana in the state: “ridiculous waste of resources,” or “start putting your efforts into the people cooking meth.”
What makes the Yuba County foothills a hotbed for large-scale illegal grows?
“The ruralness, mountain atmosphere and the ability to hide within trees,” Sgt. Brandon Spear said Friday. “And the climate itself is conducive to growing marijuana.”
When the department conducts flyovers during the grow season, deputies see – or sometimes don’t see – growers who go to great lengths to keep cover beneath tree lines, and take advantage of sprawling acreage between properties. Deputies have seen it all: thousands of plants inside large greenhouses covered by tarp, bedrooms and basements strewn with soil and converted into indoor grow rooms, and others who keep plants in pots outside with the hopes that perhaps they blend in with foliage.
Under California Proposition 64, residents can possess six marijuana plants and 1 ounce of marijuana without a doctor recommendation. Growing more than six plants without a doctor recommendation becomes a misdemeanor, and depending on criminal history and prior convictions, can be bumped up to a felony. Typically, Spear said, the department doesn’t target those simply out of compliance with the local ordinance — those growers face administrative proceedings from Code Enforcement.
Rather, the grows they’re seizing are usually tied to out-of-state, and sometimes out-of-country, criminal organizations.
Take three illegal marijuana cultivations in Browns Valley, District 10 and Edgewater in 2017: federal prosecutors took some cases citing “one of the largest forfeiture efforts in the nation’s history.” Several Chinese nationals purchased residences and grew large amounts of marijuana, wiring the proceeds back to China, according to Appealdemocrat archives. More recently, deputies busted a grow in Dobbins, seizing over 900 plants that were housed in three large greenhouses constructed in the manner typically done by Mexican nationals. That case is still being investigated. Funds from the grows are being shipped over state and country lines, and typically fund other narcotics manufacturing and distribution, Spear said.
And while recreational use of marijuana is now legal, the costs associated with becoming a certified legal grower through the state cannabis control tends to keep growers selling on the Black Market, he said.
But major concerns these largescale grows bring, he said, are environmental damage and public safety.
At many of the busts, the properties are atrocious: trash strewn all over the properties; PVC pipes snake through the dirt, diverting water from nearby creeks; canisters of petroleum spill into the creek; pesticides like carbofuran – meant to keep wildlife away from plants – leave animals dead. On large-scale grows with major environmental concerns, the department works with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state Water Board.
The cleanup of a site is expensive and lengthy: it can take up to three years and thousands of dollars. The property owner is ultimately responsible to pay the costs of consultants and professionals remedying the property, but that too comes with difficulties.
“These criminal organizations are sending people out here and people are living in forests, growing on public land, devastating the forests and watershed,” Spear said.
And with the dilapidated residences also come fire hazards: from shoddy electrical wiring, generators spread across dry grass, solar panels not up to code. And of course, the fire hazards and public safety concerns that come with butane honey (hash) oil labs, which can be explosive. And with many of the grows, deputies also find weapons and other drugs.
“(These cases) are worth pursuing for three reasons,” Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry said Friday. “They’re Black Market cannabis, so that’s hurting the folks playing by the rules. Second—it’s so environmentally destructive … third—the folks doing it on the Black Market are a magnet for violent crime.”
As for those wondering why deputies aren’t spending their time busting methamphetamine labs? That’s because meth labs just aren’t around like they used to be.
“The last meth lab I can remember was in 2011,” Spear said. “In 2009 it peaked and slowed again.”
That’s because in the early 2000s, the U.S. started regulating the ingredients used to manufacture meth, making it more difficult and expensive to produce in the country. From 2000 to 2007, NET-5 agents would shut down more than 100 meth labs per year in Yuba-sutter. Starting in 2008, they stopped seeing both small and large labs, according to Appeal-democrat archives.
That’s when control shifted, and the drug-associated cash heads over the border to be laundered into legitimate money, making it a challenge to follow, which is why asset forfeiture is a tool in deterring some criminal activity.
At the end of the day, the department is enforcing laws outlined by state lawmakers.
“It’s a plant but it’s still not decriminalized all the way,” Spear said. “You’re either compliant with state law, or you’re not.”