Led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) on Sept. 28, law enforcement raided an illegal marijuana farm at an Oakland warehouse and seized an estimated $36.9 million worth of cannabis.
In total, officers eradicated 41,082 cannabis plants and destroyed 1,841 pounds of processed cannabis, Janice Mackey, a CDFW spokesperson, told The Epoch Times in an email.
She said the operation was based on suspected illegal cannabis cultivation activities.
Officers also seized three firearms at the scene but no arrests were made, though suspects were interviewed, said Ms. Mackey.
“This is one of the largest cannabis enforcement actions (in terms of retail value) in the Bay Area this year,” Ms. Mackey wrote in an email to SFGATE.
The warehouse is located approximately at the 300 block of Adeline Street near Interstate 880. The CDFW declined to provide an exact address.
To grow marijuana commercially, business owners must obtain the proper licenses and permits, even though marijuana is legal in California. The Oakland warehouse did not have the proper licenses to grow, said Ms. Mackey.
She said the Oakland grow facility was in violation of H&S 11359 (possession for sale), H&S 11358 (cultivating over the legal limit of six plants), PC 182 (conspiracy to commit a crime), B&P 17200 (unfair business practices), and code 26038 (cultivation without proper licensing).
She said this is an ongoing investigation and charges may be filed with the county courts in the coming weeks.
Confiscated cannabis is destroyed through various means, such as using a wood chipper or incinerator. On private property operations, the infrastructure is left as is because it could be used for a legitimate business operation such as growing tomatoes, said Ms. Mackey.
David Hafner of the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) told the SF Standard that the illegal cannabis market is still strong in California in spite of the legalization in 2016. The illegal cannabis sales in California were estimated to be worth over $8 billion last year compared to $5.4 billion in legal sales.
Ms. Mackey said many of these illegal operations are criminal organizations that are used to operating in the shadows and not paying taxes or licensing fees.
“Illegal cannabis cultivation activities can happen anywhere and are usually opportunistic; we’ve conducted investigations all across the state and several in the Bay Area such as Antioch, Livermore, and Berkeley to name a few surrounding areas,” she said.
In April, according to reporting from SF Standard, two raids on illegal Oakland marijuana-growing facilities uncovered almost 40,000 cannabis plants and over $36 million worth of cannabis.
One raid was located at 744 Kevin Court and the other at 4825 San Leandro Street. The raids were carried out in partnership with the CDFW.
The raid at the marijuana farm on Kevin Court resulted in the seizure of almost $20 million in value of cannabis and over $150,000 in cash and was the larger of the two April raids.
In January, in a two-day raid, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office uncovered almost $34 million worth of cannabis at two different Oakland warehouses. Authorities seized over 30,000 marijuana plants, 2,720 pounds of marijuana, and multiple firearms.
One raid took place in West Oakland at 1685 34th Street, and the second raid was in East Oakland at 1217 48th Avenue.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office coordinated with the DCC on the “high-risk search warrants” at both facilities.
Lt. Miguel Félix Ibarra told SFGATE in an email, “This search warrant operation was part of a large-scale marijuana cultivation and tax evasion investigation.”
In 2021, ABC7 News reported the findings at an illegal growing warehouse. The authorities found plants ranging from small starters to mature three-foot plants as well as processed final product.
They found CO2 being pumped into the growing rooms and HEPA filters being used to filter the air going out, to hide the smell of the plants.
The authorities found an intricate infrastructure that included air filters, illegal wiring, generators, water, and fertilizers.
Even though the cannabis is being grown illegally, authorities believe it’s actually ending up on the legal retail market and being sold at local dispensaries, ABC7 News reported.
Ms. Mackey said the cannabis could be shipped out of state where there is a big price on California-grown cannabis.
The CDFW and the DCC are co-chairs of the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force (UCETF). The task force was created in 2022 by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to work towards disrupting the illegal cannabis market.
The task force is coordinated by the Homeland Security Division of Cal OES and includes more than two dozen local, state, and federal partners.
Ms. Mackey clarified that the Oakland warehouse raid led by the CDFW on Sept. 28, was not a UCETF operation.
In October, the CDFW released an announcement stating that the UCETF had seized more than $101 million in illegal cannabis during the third quarter of 2023. During enforcement operations, the UCETF seized 69 crime-linked firearms, which was a 363 percent increase compared to the previous quarter.
In the third quarter, the task force focused on larger targets, achieving similar results compared to previous quarters even though they served 35 percent fewer search warrants.
Since its inception, the UCETF has seized $295,284,220.94 in unlicensed cannabis through the serving of 203 search warrants. The task force has also eradicated 277,314 plants and seized 101 firearms.
The announcement states that UCETF seeks to deprive illegal cannabis operators and transnational criminal organizations of illicit revenue that harms consumers and undercuts the regulated cannabis market in California.
