Riverside County Sheriffs began conducting a large-scale marijuana eradication operation in Anza this morning, raiding scores of local grow sites and hauling away seized cannabis plants by the truckload.
The operation began early Wednesday morning as daylight broke and hundreds of County Sheriff’s personnel began serving search warrants across town.
According to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, there were more than 600 law enforcement personnel participating in the eradication operation with the goal of wiping out a “couple hundred different illegal marijuana grows.”
In a video posted to Facebook, by resident JC Playford, County Sheriff’s personnel can be seen loading cannabis plants into the backs of dump trucks and airlifting large bundles of marijuana out of hard-to-access areas with a helicopter in another.
Sheriff Bianco says that one of the sites that was initially on the list of properties to raid on Wednesday was visited by law enforcement on Tuesday night to investigate a fatal shooting.
Resident Chris McKay told Candid Chronicle that the raid is part of an effort to push out local cannabis growers and bring in outside companies.
McKay says that he plans to help address the issue from the inside-out and achieve justice for locals by running a grassroots campaign for Riverside County Supervisor in District 3 in the next election, unseating Chuck Washington who currently holds the position.
According to Sheriff Bianco, many people were arrested during the raid and all seized cannabis will be destroyed.
But, didn’t the people of California vote to legalize medical and recreational cannabis, and didn’t the governor make it so?