Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Merced County Sheriff's deputies heard a buzzing as they approached a home Thursday night south of Delhi.
The sound, as deputies found out after investigating the home in the 16300 block of Oak Street, came from generators helping run machines to grow 1,692 budding marijuana plants, Sgt Ray Framstad said.
But the house visit yielded much more, becoming the county's largest marijuana in years, Framstad said.
"It's not uncommon to find 30 or 40 pounds," Framstad said. "But 1,000 is the most we have seen in quite a long time."
In total, authorities confiscated at least $1.5 million in marijuana and marijuana-related products in the Oak Street bust, Framstad said, adding that the home likely was used as a “stash house.” More than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and five firearms were found in and around the home, including a stolen rifle with its serial code buffed out and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle stolen out of Kentucky in 2015, deputies said.
"This is (a drug trafficking) organization we've been watching for quite some time," Framstad said. "Oak Street is known for a lot of illegal cultivation associated with organized crime."
Framstad said authorities started investigating the property 10 days earlier and moved in after developing information that suggests it was an indoor marijuana grow.
No one was arrested as of Thursday night, but authorities were looking for people of interest, Framstad said.
More than 1,000 pounds of clipped marijuana buds were found divided into more than 950 bags, each weighing more than a pound, ready to go for illegal trafficking across state lines, Framstad said.
Deputies threw the bags into a 3-foot tall pile in the main room of the gutted out home as they took inventory.
Investigators also seized about 70 pounds of untrimmed marijuana from the home. Earlier in the day, deputies confiscated more than 800 plants during investigations in Merced, Atwater and Winton.
Deputies also found commercial canisters of carbon dioxide, commonly used for indoor marijuana grows, Framstad explained.
Investigators say the marijuana was grown for commercial says, not for personal use.
Framstad estimated the average marijuana user consumes about three grams of marijuana per day, saying it would take a person 427 years to consume all the marijuana deputies seized late Thursday. Considering a 10-month shelf-life on the marijuana, peddlers would have needed to sell that amount of product to more than 520 such customers.
Framstad said as marijuana has become more popular and as laws changed reducing possession of marijuana to misdemeanors and illegally growing and trafficking has become more prevalent. The increased activity also attracts criminal elements, he said.
"The Sheriff's Office's top priority is marijuana," Framstad said. "The measure of success for us is that hopefully there are no violent crime or homicides as a result of (drugs and organizations)."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: $1.5 million marijuana bust in Merced County; largest in recent years, deputies say | Merced Sun-Star
Author: Vikaas Shanker
Contact: Contact Merced Sun Star or MercedSunStar.com | Merced, CA The Merced Sun-Star
Photo Credit: Vikaas Shanker
Website: Breaking News, Sports, Weather & More | MercedSunStar.com & The Merced Sun-Star
The sound, as deputies found out after investigating the home in the 16300 block of Oak Street, came from generators helping run machines to grow 1,692 budding marijuana plants, Sgt Ray Framstad said.
But the house visit yielded much more, becoming the county's largest marijuana in years, Framstad said.
"It's not uncommon to find 30 or 40 pounds," Framstad said. "But 1,000 is the most we have seen in quite a long time."
In total, authorities confiscated at least $1.5 million in marijuana and marijuana-related products in the Oak Street bust, Framstad said, adding that the home likely was used as a “stash house.” More than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and five firearms were found in and around the home, including a stolen rifle with its serial code buffed out and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle stolen out of Kentucky in 2015, deputies said.
"This is (a drug trafficking) organization we've been watching for quite some time," Framstad said. "Oak Street is known for a lot of illegal cultivation associated with organized crime."
Framstad said authorities started investigating the property 10 days earlier and moved in after developing information that suggests it was an indoor marijuana grow.
No one was arrested as of Thursday night, but authorities were looking for people of interest, Framstad said.
More than 1,000 pounds of clipped marijuana buds were found divided into more than 950 bags, each weighing more than a pound, ready to go for illegal trafficking across state lines, Framstad said.
Deputies threw the bags into a 3-foot tall pile in the main room of the gutted out home as they took inventory.
Investigators also seized about 70 pounds of untrimmed marijuana from the home. Earlier in the day, deputies confiscated more than 800 plants during investigations in Merced, Atwater and Winton.
Deputies also found commercial canisters of carbon dioxide, commonly used for indoor marijuana grows, Framstad explained.
Investigators say the marijuana was grown for commercial says, not for personal use.
Framstad estimated the average marijuana user consumes about three grams of marijuana per day, saying it would take a person 427 years to consume all the marijuana deputies seized late Thursday. Considering a 10-month shelf-life on the marijuana, peddlers would have needed to sell that amount of product to more than 520 such customers.
Framstad said as marijuana has become more popular and as laws changed reducing possession of marijuana to misdemeanors and illegally growing and trafficking has become more prevalent. The increased activity also attracts criminal elements, he said.
"The Sheriff's Office's top priority is marijuana," Framstad said. "The measure of success for us is that hopefully there are no violent crime or homicides as a result of (drugs and organizations)."
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: $1.5 million marijuana bust in Merced County; largest in recent years, deputies say | Merced Sun-Star
Author: Vikaas Shanker
Contact: Contact Merced Sun Star or MercedSunStar.com | Merced, CA The Merced Sun-Star
Photo Credit: Vikaas Shanker
Website: Breaking News, Sports, Weather & More | MercedSunStar.com & The Merced Sun-Star
