■ Estimated value of seized plants $14.5M
AUTHORITIES seized nearly 5,000 marijuana plants from a Benicia warehouse on Thursday.
Courtesy photos
The Solano County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Enforcement Team served a search warrant Thursday at a warehouse in the 500 block of Stone Road just before 11 a.m., Snedeker said. Joining them were FBI agents and Solano County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies and its Enforcement Team.
After entering the warehouse, he said, detectives found a marijuana growing and processing operation that he described as “very large and sophisticated.”
“The warehouse was divided into 10 rooms, each with marijuana plants at various stages of growth,” he said.
“There was also a room dedicated solely to drying the mature marijuana plants for distribution.”
In other areas of the warehouse, more rooms were being built to increase the grow operation’s capacity, he said.
He said deputies and investigators found electrical panels, a large ventilation system and a watering system built into the warehouse to accommodate marijuana plant cultivation.
They seized 4,859 marijuana plants at various stages of growth and about three pounds of the processed drug, Snedeker said.
“The estimated street value of the seized marijuana was over $14.5 million,” he said.
A man who was in the warehouse when deputies entered tried to slip out the warehouse’s back door, but he was captured and arrested, Snedeker said.
He identified the man as Thuy Dinh, 34, of Hayward, and said he was taken to Solano County Jail, in Fairfield, where he was accused of cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale, conspiracy to cultivate and distribute marijuana and resisting arrest.
The man’s bail was set at $20,000, and his first court appearance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday in Fairfield.
This is the second major pot grow found in a Benicia warehouse, and the discovery of the first in January led to Thursday’s raid, Snedeker said.
Benicia Police Department learned then of a marijuana growing operation in the 4600 block of East Second Street, and requested help from the sheriff’s office during a narcotics investigation.
Solano County Narcotics Enforcement Team wrote a search warrant for that warehouse, and when it was executed detectives found 825 marijuana plants and processed marijuana valued at more than $2.5 million.
That discovery led to the investigation that resulted in Thursday’s raid and resulting arrest, Snedeker said.
Nor is the probe over, he said.
“The investigation continues and additional leads are being followed up,” Snedeker said.
“Citizens are always encouraged to contact their local law enforcement agency if they suspect illegal narcotics activity in the area where the live or work.”
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Joy more lost money to the Benicia tax base. More wasted lives. More wasted police time and effort.
Marijuana is safer than alcohol and nicotine.The majority of the population in CA no longer wants this. Let them grow their products and tax them. It would be nice to get a tax refund, like ever citizen in Colorado just did. This whole thing is an arrogant, empty headed, persuit of a political game about who has the biggest pair started before most of us where even born.
Does the average citizen know why the reffer madness campaign with all its false information and deceptive tactics was created in the first place? It was for two reasons. To give some losing politicians a boogeyman to get relected while getting paid by the artificial textile and oil industry lobbyist to eliminate the mass production of hemp and its byproducts. Another words to eliminate an organic product in favor of artifical textiles and lubricants made from fossil fuels. To this day, people like a bunch of cows to the slaughter, buy into this agregious manipulation. Well look where we are now: a dry burning, poisoned Earth, with our children condemned to pay for the thousands we have jailed out of irrational fear and repair the environmental wreckage we have left them.
Is it any wonder why they might want a joint?
None of what you said matters. It is against the law and they police and sheriff are just doing their job enforcing the law. Get the law changed and things we be different. Until then, don’t complain about the police doing their job. What do you just want them to look the other way? If so, who decides which laws they enforce and which ones they don’t. Maybe some day the police witness you being beat up and then decide they don’t want to do anything about it because they have discretion on which laws to enforce and which ones to not. Sorry you don’t get to choose and I for one and good with that.
Now go smoke another bowl …….
You are correct JLB. Just another anti fossil fuel Liberal Enviro Greenie taking a shot at law enforcement.
Bob, you will find this interesting:
http://theangryhistorian.blogspot.com/2010/10/hemp-car-myth-busted.html
JLB asked: who decides which laws they enforce and which ones they don’t.
Right now that would be Eric Holder, but by next month it will be Loretta Lynch,
😉
If I agreed with you, and I do to some extent, we constantly seem to get the cart before the horse on this issue. First point, it is a federally regulated drug, so any attempts to deregulate it on a state level have some serious side issues. For instance, can I smoke marijuana with no penalties from work? Not if I work in a drug free workplace that requires testing. Second main point I have is how do you know if someone is under the influence while driving a car, bus or piloting a plane?
In the push to legalize marijuana these are just two of many issues that need to be addressed.
“”For instance, can I smoke marijuana with no penalties from work?”
That would be entirely up to your employer. The same question could be asked about alcohol use and/or prescription pain killers.
“”Second main point I have is how do you know if someone is under the influence while driving a car, bus or piloting a plane?””
Again, how do we tell if someone is under the influence of alcohol and/or prescription medications. Better yet, how do we determine when someone is mental unfit driving a car, bus or piloting a plane? See story about Germanwings pilot.
When it is legalized (not if) it will all boil down to personal responsibility. Just light gun ownership, family planning, choosing a life partner investing, and all the other potential choices individual have to make.
All that said, I agree with RHK. The continued effort/requirement for law enforcement to walk this path is a huge waste of money, resources, and time. The existing law is no less silly than the California law that states, “No vehicle without a driver may exceed 60 miles per hour.”.
Slight rebuttal. It is not necessarily up to the employer. If I work for a company that does work for the federal government, a drug free workplace is a requirement.
It is very, very easy to tell if someone is under the influence of alcohol. It’s called a breathalyzer test. Also, THC stays in your system much longer than alcohol than booze. My point was, how do you determine if someone is legally under the influence of weed if operating a car for example.
We could go back and forth for a long time. My point is, this needs to be done in a clear and thoughtful manner. When it is easier for kids to buy marijuana than it is cigarettes something is wrong. But that does not mean to just legalize it without thinking it through.
“I do not foresee, any time soon, Congress changing the law at a national basis.”
The above is from Obama reported today.
Why doesn’t Obama just use his pen and author another law/executive order as he has done with immigration and other matters? He shouldn’t let that silly Constitution get in his way.
If he doesn’t like a law he should just change it by his whim.
“My point was, how do you determine if someone is legally under the influence of weed if operating a car for example.”
How do we determine that now?
We don’t that I know. There is no standard field test.
Just to note, and I’m in no way advocating for driving under the influence, cannabis intoxication has been shown to only mildly impair psychomotor skills, this impairment does not appear to be severe or long lasting. In driving simulator tests, this impairment is typically manifested by subjects decreasing their driving speed and requiring greater time to respond to emergency situations. This impairment does not appear to play a significant role in on-road traffic accidents. A review of seven separate studies involving 7,934 drivers reported, “Crash culpability studies have failed to demonstrate that drivers with cannabinoids in the blood are significantly more likely than drug-free drivers to be culpable in road crashes.”
I’m sure that in cases where drivers have been culpable for a mishap and have been found to have been under the influence of marijuana, there has probably also been an additional chemical component involved.
” But that does not mean to just legalize it without thinking it through.”
Not to belabor this issue, but, legalization is certainly not something that is happening over-night. The “thinking through” has been going on for decades.
RHK,
You are correct, Marijuana is very much a danger to the oil companies, alcohol, tobacco industries and a large number of chemical corporations. Various big businesses, with plenty of dollars and influence, have suppressed the truth from the people.
The first diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oils, one of which was hemp oil. In the 1930s Henry Ford produced an automobile composed of 70 percent hemp plastic which also ran on hemp based fuel and oil. In 2001 the “Hempcar” circled the North American continent powered by hemp oil.
Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that hemp produces 4 times as much pulp with at least 4 to 7 times less pollution. From Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938:
‘It has a short growing season…It can be grown in any state…The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year’s crop. The dense shock of leaves, 8 to 12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds.
…hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.’
Sounds very much like someone that would grow and sell this stuff. Sounds to me you would want it legal also and maybe even OK to smoke on the job. What a hippy life.
Following the same logic, do you then produce and sell alcohol? Ah, the conservathal life.
Interesting comment from the acting USAG concerning reclassification of marijuana: ” I think that Congress ultimately has to do that. “. And, this from someone who makes the laws.