Four thousand marijuana plants found in south Monterey County bust

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office seized 4,000 marijuana plants in the southern part of the county.
Sheriff Steve Bernal tells KION it happened near Bradley in an area off of Jolon Road.

Bernal confirms his department also seized 300 pounds of processed marijuana and $4,800 in cash during bust. He says the growers didn’t have a permit.

“This is definitely a case where they were trying to skirt the law. In California right now it’s 6 plants and no more than one hundred square feet and this was definitely outside of the range,” Sheriff Bernal said.

The Sheriff’s Office says nobody is in custody at this time.

This is a problem Bernal thinks will continue.

“Because of people don’t want to go through the permit process, they don’t want to pay the fees, and I think we’re going to see more outdoor grows,” Bernal said.

Despite recreational marijuana cultivation and sales now being legal in California, KION learns these illegal operations are still seen on a massive scale.

“Each one of these grows, it sounds like a big bust and it was, it’s just a drop in the bucket,” Grant Palmer, the CEO of the dispensary CannaCruz, said. “The truth is, they’ve been raiding grows for 80 years and it really hasn’t stopped illegal growing. I don’t know why it’s gonna work this year.”

Palmer told KION the black market continues to hurt the legal industry.

“Our problem is the taxes and fees associated with legal cannabis are so high and they don’t pay any taxes, they don’t have to pay for lab testing and so they’re able to put out a product much cheaper than we are,” Palmer said.

Palmer thinks the state needs to go well beyond the busts and lower taxes for legal pot products.

Sheriff Bernal told KION his office will continue to cooperate with different agencies and do plane and helicopter flights to try to spot illegal grows. He said if neighbors think there’s an illegal grow in their area, they can call the sheriff’s office or visit their website.