Members of the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team executed a search warrant on 5 October 2021 at a large-scale illicit marijuana growing operation in the 9000 block of Days Creek Cutoff Road, a few miles east of Canyonville.[1][2] The activity spread over two parcels of historic farmland along the South Umpqua River with two residences, outbuildings, barns and recreational vehicles.[1][2] The site held more than 100 hoop-house greenhouses, most of them full of illegal marijuana.[1][2]
Officers interviewed numerous people at the scene, most of them immigrant workers, and released them.[1][2] They arrested 31-year-old Carlos Flores Santacruz, who lived at the site, and lodged him in the Douglas County Jail on charges of unlawful possession and unlawful manufacture of marijuana; he was released the next day.[1][2] In total, DINT seized more than 66,000 live marijuana plants and over 11,000 pounds (about 4,990 kg) of processed marijuana.[1][2]
DINT said the operation was designed to look like a legal hemp business, though the sites held no state hemp permits or medical-marijuana permits.[1][2] The team said such southern Oregon grows are largely run by foreign drug cartels and cause environmental damage through fertilizers, garbage and illegal water use during drought.[1][2] Investigators described a seizure of more than 56,000 plants at a nearby Tiller Trail Highway site two weeks earlier as a related operation run by the same people, with further arrests anticipated.[1][2]
