Salinas bust uncovers massive amount of marijuana and illegal fireworks

Two men arrested for allegedly selling black-market marijuana and illegal fireworks out of their local business.

It’s a crackdown that all started because a man was acting suspiciously in front of a Salinas business before running into the business to avoid police.

On Sunday night just before eight, Salinas Police served a search warrant to a sports memorabilia store on the twelve-hundred block of North Main Street. An investigation inside the business lead officers to find 9 boxes of illegal, aerial fireworks, two handguns, over 100 pounds of marijuana, 187 ounces of concentrated cannabis, and over twelve-thousand dollars cash. Salinas Police say the big issues found from this bust were obviously the marijuana and guns, but especially the illegal fireworks.

“It seems like a petty issue, but here in Salinas each year we’ve had problems with aerial fireworks, illegal fireworks. We’ve had homes, residential homes catch on fire. And those are serious consequences for the people who live in those homes. As we move towards the 4th of July and beyond, I want people to understand that those fireworks are illegal, we’re going to have extra patrols out on the 4th of July to address that type of activity, and if you’re engaging in illegal fireworks, you’re going to get a pretty hefty citation,” said Salinas Police investigations Division Commander John Murray.

32-year old Orel Rodriguez and 29-year old Raymond Padilla were arrested. Padilla was currently out on bail for attempted murder stemming from a 2016 triple-shooting incident in Watsonville.

A judge in Watsonville significantly raised the bail for Padilla in this case.