Sheriff’s departments in Northern California are usually the ones making contact with people at illegal cannabis grows. But earlier this month, it was a worker who reached out to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
The man told officers that the grow’s owner had forced him to work in squalid conditions for two years without pay. Investigators allege the person was housed without sufficient food or bathroom access while the owner, Jesse Upton, used physical abuse to prevent them from leaving the property.
Authorities arrested Upton and charged him with human trafficking for forced labor, assault with a deadly weapon and illegal cannabis cultivation.
Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall said human trafficking cases associated with illegal cannabis have become so common that his deputies now receive training to identify potential victims.
“This is kind of embarrassing, but when I was a younger man, we probably walked right over the top of victims who we were looking at as suspects,” Kendall said.
He said some clear warning signs are poor living conditions and the worker not having the ability to leave. Some victims don’t have identification and cannot speak English. Some might not even know what state they are in.
Kendall said human trafficking and forced labor at illegal cannabis farms has likely always existed.
“I would say we are realizing what we are seeing now, because these signs have been there for years,” he said.
But Kendall thinks things could be getting worse.
“The economics in marijuana have dramatically changed over the last decade,” he said.
Illegal farms, like legal cannabis businesses, are making less money after marijuana prices plummeted. And labor is one of the largest operating costs.
“We are no longer in the heyday where everybody was growing illegally, but everybody was turning a huge profit,” he said. “You normally don't see problems until there's not enough money to go around.”
In March, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office charged a licensed cannabis grower with human trafficking after a tip from the Mexican consulate.
Recently, sheriff’s departments from Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Trinity and Siskiyou Counties joined together to create the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities. The non-profit aids in investigations and provides victim services.
