$100 Million in Marijuana Found in Thousands of Trash Bags in SoCal Building

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department uncovered 90,000 pounds of processed illegal marijuana at a building in Oak Hills on Dec. 9. San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department

San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators found more than 90,000 pounds of marijuana Dec. 9 at a home in Oak Hills, about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

The marijuana was valued at $100 million, according to the sheriff’s department.

Acting on information about illegal marijuana cultivation, the sheriff’s department’s marijuana enforcement team served a search warrant at a home on the 5000 block of Honeyhill road in Oak Hills. The five-acre property contained a newly built 120-foot by 40-foot metal building along the east fence line, according to the department.

“Inside this metal building, investigators located over 3,000 trash bags filled with processed marijuana, stacked over 12 feet high, from end to end of the building,” the sheriff’s department reported Dec. 11 on Facebook.

The trash bags weighed 30 to 50 pounds each, according to the report.

Over the next two days, the marijuana enforcement team and the county’s code enforcement team were joined by the California Fish and Wildlife Department as they processed the scene. In all, 51 truckloads of processed marijuana, totally more than 90,000 pounds, was removed from the building, officials reported.

“The investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made,” the sheriff’s department reported.

A special report by The Epoch Times in February delved into how law enforcement officials across the state were warning the public of the dangers associated with the illegal marijuana market.

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said criminal organizations were operating the illicit growing operations.

“It’s not your mom-and-pop shops, it’s all black market, big business, or the cartel organizations, criminal organizations that are doing this,” Dicus said.

Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in February that the operators of illegal marijuana grows in the county were cartel, black market, and criminal organizations. San Bernardino County Sheriff

In January, six people were found shot to death in the high desert of eastern San Bernardino County. Police say the murders were part of an illegal marijuana deal.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom reported in October that the state’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force had seized $191 million in illegal cannabis since January.

“Our communities are safer with over 42,000 pounds of illicit cannabis taken off the streets since the beginning of the year,” Newsom said. “Through the [task force], California continues the charge in cracking down on the illicit cannabis market for the safety of consumers and the support of the legal cannabis industry.”

The governor directed state agencies to aggressively target the organized criminal enterprises involved in the state’s illegal marijuana market.

The schemes not only threaten the state’s legal market, but also use illegal pesticides and unregulated practices that harm the state’s environment and water quality, according to the governor’s office.