Humboldt Sheriff’s Office Talks Numbers on Island Mountain Raids

Islandgarden

One garden as officers dismantled it on Thursday. [All photos except the last ones by Kym Kemp]

Humboldt County Sheriff press release: (See Mendocino’s press conference information here.)

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office served (7) seven search warrants on (7) seven separate parcels of property. The search warrants were for commercial marijuana growing operations located in over 40 separate large green house type structures on the parcels of property. The search warrants were served on parcels of property located off Hogtrap Road and South Face Road, Island Mountain. The search warrants were served from Monday, June 22, 2015 through Thursday, June 25, 2015. No suspect(s) were located on the parcels.

The Sheriff’s Office seized or eradicated the following items from the search warrants:

  1. 23,211 marijuana plants.
  2. 4,394 pounds of processed marijuana.
  3. 15 pounds of marijuana hash in brick form.
  4. 16-firearms.
  5. 50,000 rounds of ammunition in the following calibers, .50 caliber, .308 caliber and 5.56 caliber.

Deputies documented illegal dumping of garbage, unpermitted grading of land, and water diversion on the (7) parcels of property. Deputies are working with the State of California Department of Fish and Wild Life Services in their investigations in identifying the property owners and suspect(s) involved in the environmental damage done on the parcels of property. The Sheriff’s Office will submit their reports to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for review and possible criminal charges to be filed against the suspect(s) involved in this commercial marijuana growing operations.

A (8) eighth search warrant was served on a parcel of property in the Island Mountain area by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. A female subject was contacted and was growing approximately (50) marijuana plants on her property. After the investigation it was determined that she was in compliance was medical marijuana guide lines in the State of California. No marijuana was seized from her property and the female subject was not arrested.

The street value of the marijuana seized and eradicated is approximately 26.5 million dollars.

These cases are still under investigation by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.

Island8guns

Firearms taken from one site on Thursday displayed on the hood of a Humboldt County Sheriff’s truck.

Island5

Law enforcement leaning against a trailer at one grow site–bags of garbage in the foreground.

This photo was provided by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office

This photo and the remaining were provided by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office.

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the misadventures of bunjee
Guest
the misadventures of bunjee
8 years ago

Jesus. 50k rounds of .50 cal, et al? Were they preparing to secede from the state? Obviously that didn’t work. They got raided anyway.

moocow
Guest
moocow
8 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Looks just like my living room before spring cleaning ;^p
And the bladders? Nice! One of my neighbors tells a story of having sex on one, triggered by me innocently asking, “Did you hear those bobcats last night?”
I ran into the 9:00 am Monday convoy (almost literally) but neglected to record, sorry….next time I’ll make a vid…..

silverlining
Guest
silverlining
8 years ago

There you go. A reporter that actually drove out and covered the story in person.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
8 years ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Waiting with bated breath. It should be quite interesting.

☆★☆♣
Guest
☆★☆♣
8 years ago

Wow wouldnt it be nice if they went after illegal garbage dumps instead of people having to donate a lot time and money to do it themselves? Especially since one of the worst dump sites was not too far from these busts. Volunteers pulled multiple vehicles out of that dump!!! Tactical volunteer search&rescue folks had to scale down on ropes to get things out. A few trash bags by that trailer are nothing in comparison. Not even that whole grow scene dismantled would compare. Choosing to investigate crimes when it serves the needs of police rather than across the board just creates more distrust.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
8 years ago
Reply to  ☆★☆♣

If you mean Alderpoint, we are more than an hour from the raid sites. That said, the county certainly could have, at the least, waived dump fees for the trash these volunteers pulled (and continue to pull) out of the site.

moocow
Guest
moocow
8 years ago
Reply to  ☆★☆♣

Well thank you for your efforts – we try to police our own out here, but it’s difficult. Example: We live on a shared driveway, and last fall someone systematically dropped 8 super-large contractor bags of pot waste (everything from used diapers to fertilizer bags) …..no way it was an accident. So here’s the dark side of the big money: A lot of MF’s that don’t give a damn about the land, strewing garbage and then running outtahere with the bucks – I can’t count the times neighbors have promised to do road maintenance after having 3-4 truckloads of water a day on these old ranch roads….it’s ridiculous. Most of the old timers that cared have moved out……

Stacy
Guest
Stacy
8 years ago

When will they FINALLY go after Murder Mountain? Or are meth and hash labs OK?

Eric Kirk
Guest
Eric Kirk
8 years ago

What the f— were they thinking?

Deluth Lautrec
Guest
Deluth Lautrec
8 years ago
Reply to  Eric Kirk

Uh, $$$$$$$$$$

Scooter
Guest
Scooter
8 years ago

And mom and pop keep their herb and walk. Right on.

Uti
Guest
Uti
8 years ago

I really like that 210,000 gallon water storage bladder (aka King Kong waterbed). At least someone was storing water.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
8 years ago
Reply to  Uti

Yes, and it will be interesting to know if it is still there now. I have second hand reports of police vandalism of water systems on the Mendocino side of these raids. May not be true, of course, but past police practices have been quite destructive and wasteful, environmental rhetoric not withstanding.

joe
Guest
joe
8 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

Tmi**

Legal Farmer
Guest
Legal Farmer
8 years ago
Reply to  Uti

Storing winter’s water (if that is the water in those storage containers) is only one aspect of not degradating the ecosystem. Growers hauling in literally tons of nutrient rich “soil” onto bulldozed hill sides is potentially equally as harmful as de-watering, is it not?

Outdoor commercial agriculture (in any aspect) needs to take place in the river valley floors, where natural soil is conducive to being organically managed, so that illegal and unnatural “soil” importing is no longer an issue.

Your thoughts on my opinions, Uti?

Susy Barsotti
Guest
Susy Barsotti
8 years ago
Reply to  Uti

One site had 13 3000-gallon tanks kept filled from the Eel.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
8 years ago
Reply to  Susy Barsotti

And we know this how? I didn’t get this information in the public statements. Do you mean they were currently filling the tanks from the river, or that they did in the past. If in the past, in the rainy season when flow is high, or recent past when flow is extremely low?

CAC5
Guest
CAC5
8 years ago

Wow! Just wow!

trackback

[…] held a press conference at 4 p.m. in Ukiah on what he called Operation Emerald Tri-County. (See Humboldt’s press release here.) According to Allman, in April of this year the Sheriffs from Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt were […]

Mogtx
Guest
8 years ago

From what I hear this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg there are thousands of growsbigger that that one

Shortjohnson
Guest
Shortjohnson
8 years ago

Folks on south face have had a rough few years. First they make a big donation to the boys out in salt lake and now this. Might be time to fold up the tarp and retire. Prices are gonna drop again next year anyhow. The Good days arrrr behind us mates

joggerJohn
Guest
8 years ago

Time to get to the real mega sites, and bring the price of herb back up!

explorer
Guest
8 years ago
Reply to  joggerJohn

glad to hear a fifty plant grow with a medical recomendation was left in peace. as for the others,the pictures speak for themselves. HCSO good job.

bolithio
Guest
bolithio
8 years ago
Reply to  joggerJohn

No. Cheaper weed is what the world needs. Medicine should be available to everyone.

tugboat
Guest
8 years ago

The Sheriffs plant count of appox 26,000 plants and the value of $26,000,000 is way off. that figure comes in at $1,000 per plant, Excuse me but I get maybe 4-5 plants per pound,in green house, that comes to $200 per plant, maybe I just suck at growing or the sheriff sucks at telling the truth. anybody with the same experience as me ? ?