The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Cannabis Compliance Team served a series of search warrants last week, seizing hundreds of thousands of cannabis plants.
On June 17, Compliance Team detectives executed four search warrants related to an unlicensed cannabis cultivation site near the City of Buellton.
The warrants were the result of a two-month investigation into suspected unlicensed sales of cannabis and the use of fraudulently-obtained temporary and provisional licenses.
The investigation was a result of public complaints and tips provided to the Compliance Team.
Thirty-five detectives from various agencies, including the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Army National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, assisted the Compliance Team in the serving of the search warrants in the City of Santa Maria, in San Luis Obispo County, and at a location in the 1800 block of West Highway 246 near Buellton.
In four days, teams eradicated approximately 350,000 cannabis plants and seized around 20 tons of processed cannabis.
The plants were being grown commercially on more than 60 acres of a 187-acre agricultural property.
As of Saturday, the owner of the property had not been located or contacted.
The case is being handed over to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office for review of possible charges, and no further information is being provided currently.
