The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office will receive $4.5 million in state funds to combat illegal cannabis operations, which Sheriff Matt Kendall claims are driving violent crime in the region.
At a supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Kendall said 75% of county homicides occurred on illegal grow sites.
“These grow sites are largely controlled by transnational drug trafficking organizations,” he said. “We know that for a fact.”
The grant comes from California’s Proposition 64, funded by taxes on legal marijuana. With the money, the sheriff’s office plans to hire two detectives and buy equipment including night vision gear and drones. The county will use $150,000 to update its code enforcement software.
Kendall said his department desperately needs the help. He told supervisors that twenty years ago, finding a grow with 1,000 plants was considered a big bust. But things have changed, he said, with his department destroying 170,000 plants just this July.
“With the reduction in value of marijuana, we're seeing illegal cultivators making attempts to make the same or similar profits,” Kendall said. “The way that they're doing that is they're building these sites out to be much larger.”
He said those larger operations can come with more pollution and more violent crime.
The county instructed the sheriff to give quarterly updates on results of the grant and provide an explainer to the public on its growing capacity to target illegal sites. Kendall was adamant the money would not be used to target legal marijuana businesses.
Steve Amato of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, made up of legal growers, spoke in support of the grant at the board meeting.
“I think we'd like to be known as a place that's really producing great legal cannabis,” Amato said.
One speaker raised a concern during public comment that county cannabis enforcement could lead to partnerships with immigration authorities. Kendall reassured the board that he does not enforce immigration law.
“I want to make it very clear to everyone that I am a state peace officer,” he said. “The 10th Amendment clearly states that only a federal officer may enforce federal crimes.”
Not everyone in the county has been enthusiastic about the sheriff’s marijuana enforcement. The Round Valley Indian Tribes is suing the sheriff over a cannabis raid last year it says violated the tribe’s sovereignty. An amended complaint is in court now.
