Former City Officials in LA County Took Part in Cannabis Permit Bribe Scheme

The guilty pleas, made in 2023 but newly revealed, further illustrate the web of corruption surrounding local cannabis permitting.

Customers shop for marijuana products at a dispensary in Santa Ana, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Officials in the Los Angeles County cities of Commerce and Baldwin Park pleaded guilty in 2023 for their part in a scheme involving bribes for Baldwin Park politicians’ votes and sway over the granting of cannabis permits, it has been revealed.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Dec. 5 that Commerce’s former city manager, Edgar Pascual Cisneros, had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to federal charges over his involvement in a scheme to bribe local officials involved in the Baldwin Park cannabis permitting process. Cisneros had been city manager since November 2017.