SBC Marijuana Enforcement Teams Net 10,105 Marijuana Plants In First Week of Operation Hammer Strike

[ripcord]

Today the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team announce the beginning of Operation Hammer Strike. This marks the first time five Marijuana Enforcement Teams have been used to serve warrants within the county. Prior to July 2021, there had been only one Marijuana Enforcement Team operating in the entire San Bernardino County. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted to provide the Sheriffs’ Department with over $2 million in funding to increase their presence within the county. This resulted in an additional four Marijuana Enforcement Teams being added to the roster.

Operation Hammer Strike is the first operation that included all five teams. In just the first week of the operation, thirteen locations were served warrants in locations throughout unincorporated desert communities across the county. Between August 30, 2021, and September 2, 2021, Marijuana Enforcement Teams and San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies served 13 search warrants in and around the communities of Hesperia, Pinon Hills, Phelan, and Landers. Marijuana Enforcement had received multiple complaints about large outdoor marijuana cultivations in these areas.

Twelve suspects were arrested, including Victor Khamphilavanh, a 52-year-old male resident of Landers; Saykhone Phonepriasitm, a 44-year-old male of Milwaukee, WI; Howard Edwards, a 55-year-old male of Calumet Park, IL; Kikoi Sikhathakhosa, 42-year-old male resident of Landers; Lymontry Phonesavanh, 37-year-old male resident of Milwaukee, WI; Scott Heyden, 62-year-old male resident of Castellanos, CA; Gabriel Jimenez, 51-year-old male resident of Pinon Hills; Luz Galvan, the 43-year-old female resident of Pinon Hills; Somphas Sin, 52-year-old male resident of Phelan; Rogelio Cantu, 27-year-old male resident of Pinon Hills; and Rosalinda Sanchez, the 55-year-old female resident of Pinon Hills. All of the suspects were charged with Cultivation of Cannabis; over six plants.

Investigators seized 10,105 marijuana plants, 1,334.8 pounds of processed marijuana, three guns, and over $30,000.00 in cash. Investigators mitigated one electrical bypass and eradicated 39 greenhouses. This series of warrants are the first the Sheriff’s Department has released information on since around July 10, 2021, though the Marijuana Enforcement Teams have been serving warrants as reported to NewsPlus by eyewitnesses

https://4newsplus.com/sbc-marijuana-enforcement-teams-net-10105-marijuana-plants-in-first-week-of-operation-hammer-strike/?fbclid=IwAR2XhnjKngvCmvvuNdBsoZaX5IM04TSJuLkrTso5OT-grYF_PGfCucRsXBA

I know the people who live in Phelan are happy to see this problem being dealt with and the trash taken out.

[abqtommy]

1. Here's some perspective on the land area of San Bernardino county in

California: these Marijuana Enforcement Teams have a lot of work to do.

"With an area of 20,105 square miles (52,070 km2), San Bernardino County is the largest county in the contiguous United States by area, although some of Alaska's boroughs and census areas are larger. The county is close to the size of West Virginia."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_County,_California

[Hekate]

2. In past years, I have driven from Santa Barbara County down to San Diego. It takes hours & hours...

My late parents lived in San Bernardino County, and my late aunts and uncles were in San Diego. On our trips to see them, at long intervals I’d say to the kids: Look, we passed another county line! just for something to say as the freeway rolled by.

So I took the kids on an East Coast trip once when they were 11 and 13. We went from New Jersey down to West Virginia and toured Washington DC. Whole states just zipped by. I was really quite impressed that East Coasters managed to cram whole states into that space. Somehow it had escaped my notice just how fricking big California is.

I’m also impressed at the people who got arrested in that raid. Are they Cambodian? Thai? I can’t place their names, but Mexican Cartel they are not. This is a shift — and not what we had in mind when we legalized pot.

[ripcord]

3. We have a lot of Asian organized crime

But don't worry there are plenty of Mexican Cartels, they have been involved in human trafficking, and of course biker gangs.

[panader0]

4. So there are legal grows and illegal grows right?

Are these people stealing water or growing on other people's property? If so, they should be arrested.
Is the crime because they don't have a license? Why is it an illegal grow? Just curious in Arizona.

[ripcord]

5. The area isn't zoned for cannabis

They don't have permits and yes they steal water on a regular basis. These are not mom and pop operations, they are large commercial operations, many with over 200 grow houses and there are over 1000 of them in the area. They will take it upon themselves to close the roads that run by the grows and this is enforced by their armed goon squads. It is ridiculous that people in this country have to live in these circumstances, we might live in rural desert communities but believe it or not we are people too and deserve some protection.

[panader0]

9. Got it, and I agree with you.

[Hekate]

6. Thank you, ripcord, for bringing this to our attention

It just never ends

[ripcord]

7. My question is what kind of greedy idiots set up illegal grow houses in the desert?

[shanti]

8. The same people that

run illegal grow houses in the suburbs...and don't live there. There is a strong Chinese connection to these places in Sacramento.

[Hekate]

10. The kind of people who see the environment as at best an impediment & fellow humans as...

… marks. The kind of people whose brothers in crime set up grows in the bone-dry national forests, where they also steal water, and also defend “their” territory with guns — with the added bonus of campfires.

I wish the Sheriff all the best of luck in this endeavor, because he’s going to need it.