Worker Found Stranded Without Food or Pay at Remote Cannabis Site Leads to Human Trafficking Arrest
This is a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should be presumed innocent unless guilty proven guilty:
On Mar 10 and 11, 2026, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) served a series of three search warrants as part of an ongoing investigation into labor trafficking at a state-licensed cannabis cultivation site. Two warrants were served on remote properties in Bridgeville, and one warrant was served on a remote property in Garberville. The Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Cannabis Control assisted in the service of the warrants.
This investigation began on Feb. 20, 2026, when the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) received a call from the Mexican Consulate. Consulate officials were communicating with a victim who reported they were working on a cannabis cultivation site and had been left stranded alone on the property without food and without payment of owed wages.
HCSO MET initiated an investigation and determined the victim was located on a licensed cannabis cultivation site on a remote property northeast of Bridgeville. Deputies attempted to reach the victim but were unable to make contact due to environmental conditions and significant flooding in the area. Assistance was requested from the HCSO Search and Rescue Swift Water Rescue Team.
Deputy and victim raft across flooded road HCSO MET and Search and Rescue brings victim across a flooded road on a remote property northeast of Bridgeville.
On Feb. 25, 2026, HCSO MET, with assistance from the Swift Water Rescue Team and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, were able to navigate the flooding and serve a search warrant on the cultivation site. Deputies located the victim and safely removed them from the property. Following the extraction, the victim was immediately connected with support services and resources through the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities.
Trash pile located at a cannabis cultivation site associated with the suspect.
During the service of the search warrant, MET deputies observed failing, unsanitary, and inhumane infrastructure related to the living and working conditions on the site. Deputies also observed several regulatory violations related to the licensed cannabis operation. Based on the victim’s statements and the conditions observed on the property, investigators identified indicators consistent with labor trafficking.
Processed cannabis located on a tote at a cultivation site associated with the suspect.
Department of Cannabis Control investigators were not made available for the initial contact with the victim or inspection of the licensed premises. As the investigation continued, MET determined the licensee was not following state labor laws or worker requirements.
On Mar. 10, 2026, as part of the ongoing investigation at the Bridgeville properties, deputies located a primary suspect connected to the human trafficking allegations.
HCSO arrests suspect Georgi Tonev for violation of PC 236.1 — Human Trafficking.
Georgi Tonev, 45, of Bridgeville, was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for violation of California Penal Code 236.1 – Human Trafficking.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team and its partner agencies remain committed to investigating human trafficking and labor exploitation occurring within both licensed and unlicensed cannabis cultivation operations.
HCSO speaks with suspect Georgi Tonev at a cannabis cultivation site in the Bridgeville area.
This investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information about this case or other cannabis or human trafficking violations is encouraged to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
Black mold grows on the walls of an indoor cannabis cultivation operation associated with the suspect.
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Licensed cannabis tags scattered throughout a cultivation site associated with the suspect.
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That plant looks about as unhappy as the starving trimigrant
“and one warrant was served on a remote property in Garberville.” Was any information given on that warrant in Garberville?
What is the local fascination with breaking the law?
What is it that drives you?
Gee, Mr Hand,
I don’t know…
Oooooooh nooooooo!!
“Am I going to pass this class?”
This industry has rotted to the point where exploitation is treated as a business model. If you’re “succeeding” by underpaying, abandoning, or mistreating your workers, those who are Indigenous to this continent, or otherwise vulnerable you’re not running a legitimate operation. You’re exploiting human beings, and you should be taken the fuck out of our farming community.
This industry is dying, and instead of building a path for ethical, sustainable operations, the state and the worst actors in the industry have created a cycle where only those who cut corners, withhold pay, or treat workers as disposable survive? WTF Is it worth it to starve people or so you make some money?!
If you think someone is “less than” because of their race or background and use that to justify mistreatment, that is racism, that is exploitation, and it has no place in this industry or anywhere else. May the good earth reject your existence.
In this instance, I’d be in favor of scraping the ground clean of everything there and let it go back to nature. Leave no trace as it is said.
My first thought was “how cheap can I get that beautiful property”?
It was for sale for around 450k a few years ago its up McClellan mtn road above bridgeville, probably get it a lot cheaper now!
Can you get fire insurance?
Yeah, but I can tell you it’s a bit of a price increase. Mine went from $900 a year to $2700 on a 40 year old policy hadn’t increased in the last 20. Had to do a few other things too, like new metal roofs, get rid of dead trees, can’t let the prairie grass get more than a foot tall within 100′, better storage of onsite fuels, like having to replace gas cans stored on site with more fire resistant types. Had a page full of things to do. None of that was cheap. And then the urban folks want to bitch about property taxes being too low…
Just like grape workers in wine production?
I was gonna say:
It’s the American way…
Everyone is exploited.
Seniors pay taxes on property that they bought with taxed money, every year…
Tax you when you earn, tax you when you spend, tax your interest if you save and your IRA Distributions that they force you to take, and tax your property, a tax you pay with taxed money…
Nobody is exploited more than the clown who goes to college, gets a job, works all his life and then retires…
“Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman
I’ll tax the street
(If you try to sit, sit) I’ll tax your seat
(If you get too cold, cold) I’ll tax the heat
(If you take a walk, walk) I’ll tax your feet
(Taxman)”
… George Harrison
The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. The SoHum Community Park Farm hires seasonal migrant farm workers, they live in illegal housing with no running water or sewer system. However, they received a $350k state grant (CDFA), of which the Park E.D. receives compensation for administering the grant. Non of the grant money is being used to improve the housing for farm workers, go figure…
Here here
This isn’t some rare horror story; it’s the norm in this industry, in both the legal and illegal markets. When a licensed operator can leave a worker stranded without food or pay, in inhumane conditions like the ones described here, it shows exactly how deep the rot goes. And regulators need to own their part in this. I’ve seen so many licensed farms run exactly like this one well‑connected ones!!!!!and it’s not as if our local government doesn’t know. What infuriates me is that they’ll arrest this guy, but they would never touch half the farms operating the same way because those owners are related to or connected to people in government.
Big ag works this way too, and it’s exactly why most good ranchers and farmers, those who don’t see their workforce as disposable,are pushing for meaningful immigration reform. The ones who aren’t pushing for it? You can bet they don’t see their workers as human.
The county and state have built a system so punitive, contradictory, and economically impossible that many operators can’t survive without cutting corners or exploiting vulnerable workers. That doesn’t excuse the abuse it exposes the environment that allows it to flourish. If your business model depends on treating workers as disposable, you’re not running a business, you’re an abuser.
Until regulators stop creating conditions where exploitation becomes the only viable path to profit, stories like this will keep happening and they will keep being the rule, not the exception.
Sorry If my last comment was harsh but I’m sick of this being our reality.
Not quite. This county and state have refused to enforce immigration laws. This gives people who are willing to use illegal workers the opportunity to out complete those who follow the law because the burden of regulation on business in California is huge. A burden profitable to the legal system and is enforced by the courts, which are not available or as profitable to illegal immigrants. Illegal labor is cheaper because illegal workers rarely will bring themselves to the attention of officials by complaining.
If this guy had not been stranded by the weather and become desperate, no one would have ever known. The only thing shocking in this story is that the owner got arrested. And that only because the worker was desperate enough to call in outside assistance and it needed law enforcement fo do a water rescue and who couldn’t ignore the situation that was placed under their noses. . But this is so rare as to be equal to winning the lottery. No official wants to look under these rocks.
It is not just agricultural or cannabis farms doing this “because the laws are so punitive.” That is just your small corner of the world. This existed in the days of the heyday of fabulous profits before legalization. People looking to profit by illegal means just aren’t and never have been so interested in following labor or environmental laws either.
It is trucking companies, loggers, restaurants, arborists, manufacturers, package delivery drivers, warehouse workers, independent contractors in every field of labor, contractors, building contractors, plumbers, etc etc etc.
I thought cheap labor is why dems wanted them here
The desire to preserve a supply of cheap, easily exploited labor is completely bipartisan. Roughly 25% of ICE detention centers have documented labor‑related violations including coerced or forced labor yet the political conversation pretends this is about “border security” instead of economics.
The truth is simple: industry has no interest in an immigration system that treats the 50% of our farm labor force with dignity, because real reform would mean paying people fairly.
Meaningful reform wouldn’t just protect workers it would create a safer border, reduce trafficking and deaths, and give us a documented labor force able to travel home to their families without fear. It would even reduce illicit crossings by replacing desperation with legal, regulated movement. But none of this is happening, because the system isn’t built for the safety of workers or citizens. It’s built to preserve a vulnerable labor force that keeps costs low and profits high.
If farmworkers earned minimum wage, had workers’ compensation, insurance, and basic protections, then farmers would need to be paid and there would be stricter protections. And if farmers were paid fairly….well that would disrupt the entire profit structure that Wall Street depends on. The current system keeps labor cheap, keeps food artificially cheap, and keeps profits high and both political parties know it.
I appreciate your thoughts. Everybody in this country should be able to make a living wage, and that most definitely includes farmers and ranchers, some of the hardest-working people I know. I try to buy as much food locally as I can to support them, and yes, it usually costs more. Change is hard, and some people/corporations/political structures do resist it, but figuring out solutions is the best thing to do.
Not all crops are sustainably marketable. Wheat, cattle, literally every raised item has good and bad market runs. large loans are taken out to cover lean times, and replant crops or invest in an expanding herd. Thinking you ‘need’ to be paid, and stricter protections are the solution is wrong. Grow a different crop, and be a real farmer.
When cattle feed is too expensive they cull the heard, economics.
Erm economics…. so If everyone culls at once, the price collapses even further that’s not a mystery, it’s basic agricultural economics. And let’s be honest: processors are the ones setting the price here. When JBS and South America quadruple their imports, we end up with two predictable outcomes.
First, taxpayer‑funded subsidies keep heavily indebted farmers barely afloat. Second, even with those subsidies, people still go bankrupt because the price keeps plummeting.
Meanwhile, we’re sitting on the smallest U.S. cattle herd since the 1950s and ranchers are leaving the industry at one of the highest attrition rates in modern history. Families who held on for generations are walking away because the math no longer works.
There is no path to recovery in this current model. If the market can’t sustain producers without subsidies and producers still fail then it isn’t a market at all. It’s an extraction system. And our current administration favored imports remember that.
You know what I think is going to happen? Because ranchers are being placated with the current subsidies, they won’t fight, their short‑term needs are being met. Eventually, those subsidies will be terminated so processors can further consolidate the market and purchase ranchland and farms for pennies. I’ve learned this pattern from my own market. It would be really sad to see that happen. It’s been terrible to watch cannabis tank and all the good players get bought out or go under.
Greed- that’s what crashed the weed market. Too many running after profits that were only achieved because they had been illegal. There hasn’t been a greed rush in cattle in over 150 years. Cattle are too much work all year long and need a lot of land. Weed and cattle are not equivalent.
Usually cattle are culled because there has been a drought which reduced grass so supplement feed is required. Which also reduces the feed harvest at a time of increased demand and makes that more expensive at the same time. Or a disease has swept through or prices shot up so high it ranchers ware persuaded to sell off as much as they can to take advantage. Then, having sold off, they start rebuilding their herds and, three years later which is the minimum of time it takes to have a marketable product, there’s now an oversupply so it gets cheaper. They may choose to hold on until next year and see if prices go up. But…
You seem to see it as some machinations of processors, which can play a part, but it’s mostly processors following the market, taking into account both supply and what people pay. It’s not some massive plot against farmers.
Now government subsidies are supposed to be there to reduce the natural swings. To manage production caused by these swings. But now “farming” the government has become more lucrative than actual farming. Some only existe to meet the minimum requirements to be called a business but really they exist for subsidies and tax breaks.
However there are both tax rules, inheritance and land use regulation 5hat make decisions for people. But again it is the law of unintended consequences or inept (lots of inept) government. .
Novel ideas, take them up with the heavily taxpayer subsidized “ag industry” corporations.
It would disrupt the world where Sanctuary Cities, States exist. If you look where the big use of “illegal workers” exists… you find places like anywhere in California, Colorado, Chicago etc., (take a guess why). How do those States etc. vote ( it’s a clue). Think the interface with politicians/government and Organized Crime doesn’t exist? Think again!
I wish I could say that was true but it’s not. From a couple of decades ago I remember a conservative business owner of a meat processing plant ranting on about the various problems cause by massive illegal immigration. Then the Feds raided his plant and most of his employees were illegal immigrants.
The real political problem is that everyone uses illegal workers for something, whether as a housekeeper maid or taxi driver to warehouse worker or farm labor, because it’s cheaper than hiring demanding entitled citizenry. And somehow manage to think how generous they are to hire this poor hardworking illegals.
The real evil is the combination of expensive labor and environmental laws with the unwillingness to pony up to pay for it. So the wages of citizens can’t exceed those of immigrant otherwise they don’t get hired because, dang it, all those legally required benefits touted as “safety nets” cost so much. So people say to themselves that illegal immigrants get those too. But they don’t in fact. They don’t file for workers comp, they don’t get reported for OSHA violations, they don’t access health care, etc because it would bring them to official notice and deportation might happen. So the extremely odd attitude of how awful it is to deport someone while simultaneously uses them rentlentlessly becomes a rationalization for their own greed.
The bottom line is always if people want to earn a “living wage” with benefits, the money to pay for this comes other people. It should not be cheaper to eat out than cook, hire a landscaper than do your own mowing, put parents into a nursing home than care for them yourself, etc but that is what everyone wants. So they turn a blind eye to the fact that hiring cheap immigrant labor creates a society that hires under the table and exploits illegal immigrants while thinking themselves liberal in objecting to restricting it. Hello? It’s greed no matter how it’s phrased.
$anctuary Citie$, $anctuary $tate$, Open Borders, Kickback$, Govt. $ubside$, Admini$tration of “Rebranded Slaves” might be clues! Some politicians own businesses like wineries! Others own similar interests. Big Bu$ine$$.
Naah, that is the purview of the Trumpy “farmer ag industry” throughout.
They want to count them.in the census for more seats in the House
Cheap votes is why dems wanted them here
It’s not just a California issue. Big ag operations are wholly dependent on illegal migrant labor all over the country, including in states that ostensibly do all they can to aid the federal government in immigration enforcement.
Likewise meat producers.
Colorado, Chicago(big distribution point – who runs it?).
Likewise trucking, manufacturing, retail, janitor services, etc. It has become so pervasive the only people not using them, directly or by independent contracting, are governments. The result is that only government or government controlled businesses still have pensions, good health insurance, paid time off, etc. Everyone else competes to a system of illegal workers without benefits, demanding of entitlement from government to compensate for lost benefits.
But that has the nasty result of becoming dependent on government rather than in control of it. Demanding, whiny clients of government who chooses for them rather than respects them.
The “Big Three” meat processors tyson, JBS( Argentinian beef processor and large contributor to trumps campaign, and Cargill. They don’t just dominate the market; they’ve shaped the regulatory landscape so thoroughly that independent farmers and ranchers can barely breathe. Through consolidation, lobbying, and rules written to favor massive vertically integrated operations, they’ve turned the entire industry into a funnel where value flows upward and risk flows downward. Producers are pushed into a system where exploitation is normalized.
That’s where racialized narratives and culture‑war identity come in: the trumpiness isn’t the cause, it’s the religion a ready-made moral shield that lets people feel righteous while defending practices that harm workers, animals, land, and consumers’ bodies.
Farming used to be a craft rooted in pride and stewardship; now it’s an industrial machine. Meanwhile, the Big Three capture the profits, financial institutions profit off volatility, and both producers and laborers are left fighting for survival.
JBS S.A, is a Brazilian owned multinational headquartered in São Paulo- they are the largest meat packers in the world. Got to wonder what else you wrong about.
Walter, my mistake. JBS ( which is indeed the largest meat producer in the world) is headquartered in Brazil, but it’s their subsidiaries operating inside Argentina that directly benefited from the company’s donations to the inaugural committee. In this case the largest packer “paid to play” and wow did they make out. And honestly, how does any of that help America’s farmers in your opinion?
“Evidence shows JBS and its subsidiaries donated $5 million to the Trump–Vance Inaugural Committee the largest single contribution while Trump moved to quadruple Argentine beef imports and softened positions that directly benefited JBS’s global supply chain.”
$5M JBS Donation Raises Pay-to-Play Questions for Trump
“Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer calls JBS a “Brazilian meat cartel” with a history of bribery and political influence.”
Not what you say. “As Michigan State professor David Ortega puts it, 80,000 metric tons may sound like a lot. However, Americans consume more than 25 billion pounds of beef a year. Adding the metric equivalent of 176 million pounds is “basically a rounding error.”
Turns out another dive in government shenanigans leads to this not being much about farmers and cattle stock as the SEC approving JBS as a publicly listed stock on the NYSE and (another kind of) stock markets and the politics of corruption. “After a decade-long beef with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as bipartisan opposition in Congress, JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, was finally given the green light in late April to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.”
“In addition to the SEC approval, there have been other federal policy changes in President Trump’s first 100 days that have benefited JBS and the Batistas—most notably, the administration’s decision to stop enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
That law, which dates back to 1977, prohibits U.S. companies (including subsidiaries owned by foreign companies), citizens, as well as foreigners acting in the U.S., from bribing officials in the U.S. or abroad. It had previously led to JBS parent company J&F Investimentos paying a $128 million criminal fine as part of a 2020 settlement with the Department of Justice in which J&F pleaded guilty to corruption charges. J&F also paid nearly $27 million over foreign corruption charges with the SEC in 2020. At the same time, the Batistas, who are Brazilian citizens, settled a civil penalty with the SEC and paid $550,000 each. JBS’ spokesperson says that the Trump Administration’s decision “didn’t change any of the obligations contained in J&F’s settlement, which have been fully complied with.”
“Argentina exports only a small amount of beef to the United States—roughly 20,000 tons a year compared with more than 12 million tons of U.S. production,” he said. “So even a sharp increase would barely move retail prices.”
“This executive order looks less like economic strategy and more like political theater,” he said. ” A strategy on environmental law, corruption and billionaires.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2025/05/13/jbs-meatpacking-history-of-bribery-prepares-ipo-batista-brothers-joesley-batista-wesley-batista/
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-beef-prices-inflation-argentina-10904012
The “Big Three” meat processors tyson, JBS( Argentinian beef processor and large contributor to trumps campaign, and Cargill. They don’t just dominate the market; they’ve shaped the regulatory landscape so thoroughly that independent farmers and ranchers can barely breathe. Through consolidation, lobbying, and rules written to favor massive vertically integrated operations, they’ve turned the entire industry into a funnel where value flows upward and risk flows downward. Producers are pushed into a system where exploitation is normalized.
That’s where racialized narratives and culture‑war identity come in: the trumpiness isn’t the cause, it’s the religion a ready-made moral shield that lets people feel righteous while defending practices that harm workers, animals, land, and consumers’ bodies. But let’s not be dense those situations already existed.
Farming used to be a craft rooted in pride and stewardship; now it’s an industrial machine. Meanwhile, the Big Three capture the profits, financial institutions profit off volatility, and both producers and laborers are left fighting for survival.
Local government became too urban, too progressive to keep local processeors in business. I wrote to the BOS when the tallow works closed. I wrote to the BOS when the Lolita Cooperative was hit by that scam artist but they did nothing. It folded. I wrote again when Redwood Meats became a soap opera. Crickets.
Frankly, just like a whole lot off people, government sees agriculture in terms of the plastic wrapped stuff in supermarkets and it just never crosses their minds about the fallout when locals become unable to market. Even for self-sufficiency. Unless of course it is phrased as “food sovereignty ” for local tribe. Then it becomes a social justice issue and that they will listen to.
If your business model depends on treating workers as disposable, you’re not running a business, you’re an abuser.
I’m sure it’s called modern day slavery.
Well I am just glad that we gave our industry away and plunged our county into poverty so this kind of stuff doesn’t ever happen anymore! You know like a Bulgarian abusing a Mexican near Bridgeport…so glad that doesn’t happen
Bridgeport? That’s funny. It’s also in Mono County.
BRIDGEVILLE.
not Bridgeport. Reading is FUNdamental
I know how to read. Do you?
Oops- was reading a funny story about a police shooting in Bridgeport, CT. The guy was bleeding out but when the ambulance showed up one of the cops took it because they had an anxiety attack. 2nd ambulance showed up later and the guy bled out and died. That’s Bridgeport Connecticut. NOT Bridgeville. My mistake.
How is this story funny? A man died because an idiotic police woman wanted to get away from the crime scene. You are a sick person.
Hilarious. Funny as a heart attack. Yeah- he woulda died anyway. They shot him real good in the back as he ran away. Funny how that is, right?
Read that too but didn’t think it funny. It’s hard to say what really happen as this is “news” generated by a lawsuit. And lawyers will always edit the truth f8r profit.
I have heard that it’s not outside the realm to intentionally, and very publicly publish info as a way to quietly taint a jury pool, or get a trial moved to a more neutral location. It’s one of the Q’s I get every time I’ve had to show up for JD; if I knew anything about the case or trial at hand or those in it. Well…in a less populated, isolated place such as ours, the chances that one of us prospective jurors know someone involved is pretty good. Works with misinformation as well, as you can nail down who is spreading it. Social media makes unknowing rats out of a lot of people.
Funny like smells funny. It’s a phrase we used a lot back in NY…where I grew up
Called the Mexican Consulate then “Following the extraction, the victim was immediately connected with support services and resources through the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities.” California-speak for exploiting illegal immigrants who then looked to their country of origin to save them?
According to this site https://www.bizapedia.com/people/georgi-tonev.html , this employer runs a bunch of other places too. All fairly remote and likely run the same way.
Was def wondering how a permit got issued for a site that would require a swift water rescue
Ask Rex and Co. They’re the ones that approve of them.
You forget how widely supported illegal cannabis was supported on this site. Even today Kym will rhapsodize over the generosity of growers in the day of big profits with illegal grows. It is necessary to make heros out of outlaws to avoid looking too closely that crime done for profit is inevitably mostly always selfish.
I didn’t forget. Some of those (legal) growers are people any one of us here might know. The BoS was the one issuing them and a few folks I heard from the first day the licenses were being handed out there was a lot of suspicion of back-yard deals, right in the hallways of the courthouse. Such as people not even from here looking to “partner” up with those getting licenses and use them to run their own businesses.
This fine feller in the article only had a provisional license (h/t John Chiv) But it’s been expired for over a year. Was no one following up on the licensing?
Truly like chiv’s site because it will get into nitty gritty.
Why? Because enforcing is expensive for government and people complain so. It ends up as onsided he-said-she-said in the news because, even if they want to say, government has privacy restrictions. So government has developed a don’t-ask-don’t- tell pattern of behavior. It’s endemic in all government sysrems these days.
Local fraud is a sub microscopic issue compared to the billions lost in entitlement fraud business. Any that gets addressed is because some low level employee complained persistently enough.
It looks like its part of the Bulgarian enclave out on Showers Mountain, between Bridgeville and Kneeland.
I would have assumed that they would have made them finally put the bridge in, which was supposed to be put in by the person that originally subdivided the place. But, of course, the right palms were likely greased so that this crap can continue.
It’s gorgeous up there, but super remote.
What was your first clue it was the “Bulgarians”?
For me it was the guy’s name. And the location outside Bridgeville. Plus the knowledge that a bunch of the Bulgarians got permits (that my old-school og very long-time local friends could never afford because we never went mega)
Any number of those OG people could have pooled their money and blocked out these foreign “investors”, if only by holding land and doing nothing with it so they couldn’t. They were too insular and quiet, but that’s probably from having to be clandestine for so many years; the idea of a co-op wasn’t on their radars, because that’s exposure. Those other folks didn’t come here broke. Every one of them had some quiet access to other’s capital and just pay cash for everything. Our folks just seemed to want to go big on their own and one-up each other, rather than collaborate beyond what they could hawk at Cannifest or Emerald Cup or something. These outside agents didn’t necessarily have to be from eastern Europe or wherever either. Some came from Oregon or Oklahoma, S. Dakota, Arizona, and like this guy in the article, he had offices and LLCs in Seattle going back to 2000. No idea if he’s a US citizien or not that’s just been bouncing around in the black market. But he most certainly had contacts in Mexico if the one person he left stranded made a phone call to the consulate.
Always take care of your employees [insert adjective, expletive, less than civil words here].
No doubt the idea was floated but how could OG people compete with suitcases full of millions in cash for land worth 1/1000th that?
Tonev is more likely than not a Bulgarian name(google it). The Eastern European influx into Humboldt County to grow is a remarkable(other adjectives work well here) chapter in the history of growing. One of our leading real estate agents said that at one time they owned over 200 properties in the county. Lots of stories about them from many neighborhoods. I am often surprised to hear that some are still operating here, thought they had mostly moved on to less restrictive growing locations i.e. Oregon and Oklahoma.
You should look into H‑2A funding, specifically programs like CIERTO, which has received major philanthropic support to expand H‑2A recruitment in Mexico and Guatemala. According to CIERTO’s own press release, the organization was seed‑funded and later expanded through grants from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to scale “ethical recruitment” pathways for up to 20,000 H‑2A workers from Northern Central America .
At the same time, the H‑2A system has a long, well‑documented history of migrants being charged illegal recruitment fees, even when U.S. contractors deny involvement. For example, about 170 Thai workers paid up to $8,000 each to recruiters for H‑2A jobs in Washington state, illustrating how debt‑based coercion becomes embedded in the program’s structure .
Worker recruitment captures an estimated 12% of the agricultural dollar, creating strong financial incentives for intermediaries to maintain control over labor supply. Imagine if we had a real immigration pathway that didn’t rely on recruiters whose business models depend on forms of debt‑bondage and indentured servitude. In some ways, coalitions funded by the same philanthropic networks that support H‑2A recruiters end up reinforcing the market dominance of established recruitment actors, rather than expanding worker autonomy or reducing exploitation
Now look at this for reference and ask yourself why the Sherriff only busts some farms who use these labor practices ?
The Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities is funded entirely by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, funneled through another nonprofit called the Center to Combat Human Trafficking. According to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, 100% of the coalition’s money originates from this philanthropic pipeline, which has financed grants, equipment, vehicles, and staffing across Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Trinity, and Siskiyou counties. The Board formally accepted a $334,615 grant from the coalition during its August 27, 2024 meeting, as reported here. TODAY in SUPES: Board Approves Grant and Two Full-Time Positions for Sheriff’s Office; State Claws Back Millions in Cannabis Funds | Lost Coast Outpost | Humboldt County News
These exploitative systems were put in place throughout the agriculture industry by the big corporations that Repubs love so much.
To be fair, some Democrats have an awful lot of unaccountable expenditures with the million different “non-profits” and such they operate or fund. Same money, just a different grift. Corporations rely on sales to grift from you. Government attaches your taxes (by force, via garnishments and what not) to grift from you. Throw in a few hundred obscure, buried in the LLMs non profits and funnel through those. Case in point: how much did First Partner Newsome take from her “gender equity” involvement? It’s in the millions.
Hitting the nail on the head. I would add that “repubs” and neo-libs alike promote these systems…
As someone who’s been around the industry for a decade, I can’t help but feel that Silicon Valley “Startup culture” (i.e. move fast, break things) had more influence in the local cannabis industry than most give credit for. Especially after 2016.
Thats extra creepy considering that his dad, Warren, was implicated multiple times in the Franklin Scandal back in the day.
Nonsense. That program has existed for decades. You’re late to the party by decades. It took over from the WWII era Bracero program. Look at it? Look at it? I’ve known about it. But it was corrupted into a free for all for big employers. Illegal immigration made it a ridiculous idea. Once in the country the massive government bureaucracy served to find ways to let them stay no matter what. Visa? Who needs no stinking visa? It became twisted into the Progressive mantra. It even expanded to far beyond “low skilled labor.” The idea has literally taken over the health field, tech companies, retail, manufacturing, everything.
The final straw for me was when Disney imported cheaper engineers from India. “If this story sounds familiar, the news comes just months after 250 Disney workers were laid off in the Parks and Resorts department. Many of those workers also had to train their replacements, who came from India on temporary work visas known as H-1B visas. News of those layoffs created an online uproar, with the original New York Times report about it getting almost 3,000 comments. WomansDay.com’s story on the controversy got shared almost 8,000 times.” I can’t hear the word Disney without hating everything it stands for.
It may have created uproar but all Disney did was change tactics to do it individually, piecemeal rather than en masses. Some blame immigrants and Progressives blame Republicans but in truth it needed Democrats to make it work.. Progressive social agendas turned it into cries racism or xenophobic if anyone objected. Immigrant good, fellow citizens bad. Biden tried his best to make it official with his DEI push. California government couldn’t be more successful at it if they were Congressional lobbyists.
https://www.womansday.com/life/work-money/news/a50923/disney-cancels-layoff/
Some people and political parties just gotta have them some slaves. You nailed it. Government $upport for new-age $lavery. Makes you wonder if some of the “do-gooders” know they are perpetuating this model.
I never heard of any charges on the owners of that mega-grow Glass House bust down in Santa Barbara. Hundreds of illegal workers, children on site yet the owners and managers were never even cited. Hmmm….
I don’t think there were any eventually, as the employment contractors they used caught most of the heat. They’re still in operation. However the company had to make a lot of changes and overseeing the pre-employment screening, Guidepost Services is run by Julie Wood, former ICE director under Bush 2.0
Original bust.
What makes this even more concerning is that, in our area, the funding streams for both the labor‑contractor visa programs and the law‑enforcement initiatives that target farms not using contractors trace back to the same source !!!!
When the same individual or entity financially supports both sides of that equation, it creates a built‑in conflict of interest. It also creates the selective enforcement designed to protect the contractor system rather than the workers.
This isn’t about political affiliation. Exploitation operates independently of party lines. The real takeaway is that we have a law‑enforcement structure WHO IS eliminating competition for labor contractors while overlooking serious abuses occurring on farms that rely on those contractors.
I’m going to dig into the information you shared, because the overlap in funding and enforcement deserves a much closer look.
Turning the illegal immigrants into innocent victims to shuffle the blame upwards is facilitates the problem as much as the labor contractors shuffling of blame downwards by disappearing when a raid happens and taking the profit with them. “This shows the double standards of our legal system, where corporations can profit from the immigrant workers their businesses depend on, yet wipe their hands clean when it becomes inconvenient,” as CS linked article puts it, doesn’t make the illegal immigrant innocent. It just makes them vulnerable. In fact the marketers of illegal immigrants are often another illegal immigrant themselves.
If there wasn’t a culture that co-opts , that pretends, there is virtue in helping poor people when it is simply profiting off the poor, then this wouldn’t be so prevalent. It takes everyone playing their part in illegality for this to work- the immigrant who gets fake papers and crosses illegally to the NGO that spins it as someone else’s fault to the figurehead hired to put a gloss of legitimacy on the practice. The ultimate villains in this are the politicians who pass endless regulations, refuse to spend money to enforce them, then shirk their responsibility by announcing being shocked over the inevitable result.
And also people really need to look into ICE for human trafficking. The Ex ICE director is now working as a labor contractor. When will people wake up. The system isn’t about protecting you but our ability to make it hard for these laborer to ask for basic human rights. Their low wages hurt working Americans yes but many of you are blaming the victims of the system rather than the perpetrators. Time to do some soul searching folks.
“When will people wake up?” When they stop looking for someone, who just incidentally they already hate anyway, to blame and start looking at their own participation in the drama.
Cannabis was so much more fun and so much safer when it was a crime
Yeah… ‘Murder Mountain’… now that’s a real hoot !
Murder Mountain was an anomaly. Media loves to hype that stuff. Most neighborhoods were good and kind folks just making a living. We could have tightened up the scene and removed the biggest assholes without handing the entire industry over to the corporate state. But we did not. We surrendered with barely a protest. And now our county is in poverty again. And the multi-billion dollar industry still exists- just that the money doesn’t come here anymore. I say we blew it big time…
IMHO:
Oh, I know that.
Just tossed out a common term that carried the legacy of that era.
But there were lots of er… local anomaly’s back then.
Illegal aliens with no USA address would not even have been noticed.
Now and then you see the line… ‘XX went to work on a dope farm and disappeared’ being resurrected in the ‘cold cases’ section of the Sheriffs log.
More proof low wage immigration is just rebranded slavery.
ban low wage immigration outright.
force Americans to work instead,
bring up wages and control cost of living.
prioritize developing American citizens.
Been calling it “New Age Slavery” for years. “Rebranded Slavery” is exceptional and I will use it. The folks that are rebranded will not complain for obvious reasons.
Except everyone who participates choose to even if it later turned out badly. Slavery doesn’t get that option.
That’s why we call it new wave slavery.
its a new take on the same old dynamic
Reporting these labor infractions to the Mexican Consulate was a shrewd maneuver on the part of the cannabis employee. I’m reminded of how stupid it is to underestimate our fellow human beings.
Maybe…he wanted to make it out alive.
Not surprising at all , is anything surprising anymore? And shitty to say doesn’t look that bad . Every person I had come work for me had some kinda horror story about working for guys and not getting paid .I always fed well paid well and treated everyone with respect. I shared stories and food with people from all over the world even a Canadian dude he was weird like he was programmed. I shut down shop after 2021 season never tried to go legal just started feeling the heat and all the reasons why I was growing were gone.Used to go to McClellan mt and get power flower at night way back like 98 so no body would see us hauling dirt outdoors were like 35 back then it was crazy.Now it’s everything in the wide open and cutthroat AF in every aspect.
Sorry but it was always cutthroat. Like you said- someone always had a story. But, like your doing business staying under the radar, the violence was hidden too. There were just those missing people, immigrants shipped back home, people who left under threat, and private medical treatments. Stories but no official investigations.
The biggest surprise here is that in the photo of him, Tonev is not wearing a track suit.
Ha Ha Ha!!
🤣 🤣
Congrats- calling someone “dumb mfer jew russian fk tard” gave it away. You are the problem – not a solution.
Thank you for pulling that comment!
This should have been discovered long ago by simply having routine surprise inspections of the permitted sites. They charge through the nose to get these permits, they should spend some of that on checking the farms regularly. Legalization was supposed to prevent all of this but it prevents nothing when no one bothers checking up on them. Legalization was doomed to fail from the time it started, all sorts of fees with extremely low oversight,
Yes. But then growers would complain there were no surprise inspections of carrot farms and feel aggrieved. This was the mutually agreed on situation.
Carrots aren’t a controlled substance, there was no mutual agreement lol. This is simply a take the money but don’t put any back into overseeing thing
Cannabis legal and illegal did alot to bring the criminal element to the area..Better
the days when timber was King.
IMHO:
Now… latest economic fad is building concrete barracks, hydrogen busses, no-bike lanes, closed streets, vibrant, vivacious, vivisectionist, vehemently, verdantly communities !
Go figure.
I thought it was going to say Emry Jacques in the article. He was reported to HCSO but I guess they didn’t care about human trafficking at the time.
Why didn’t they wait for the water to recede?
It sounds like too much drama.
It sounds like the worker is someone with the type of connections for whom the calvary will arrive when the poop hits the fan.
These legal sites need to be inspected on a regular basis to ensure compliance, much as OSHA is supposed to inspect work sites.
The FBI should be investigating how this land owner and other operators are procuring labor from other countries and put a stop to this trafficking.
😂 😂 😂 Good one! They can’t even enforce thousands of pounds disappearing out the backdoor. The whole thing is quite a joke