Riverside officers found about 40,000 marijuana plants in an illegal grow comparable in size to a city block, one of the largest ever discovered in the city.[1][2] Officers obtained a warrant and entered the 10-acre property in the 2500 block of McAllister Street in the Greenbelt neighborhood on Thursday after a caller complained of a strong marijuana odor from a home that appeared to hold a private garden nursery.[1][2]
Many plants were at cultivation maturity inside a large greenhouse, and police said the operation could have produced about 20,000 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $20 million.[1][2] A neighbor told Los Angeles ABC station KABC the land had sold about six months earlier and the buyers had raised an opaque new fence, and residents had noticed the evening and early-morning smell.[2]
No one there
No arrests were made, and it took officers 24 hours to remove the plants along with thousands of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides.[2] Riverside police spokesperson Officer Ryan Railsback described the odor complaint and the nursery-like setup.[1] The reports do not say whether the farm held a state cultivation licence; California limits private residences to six cannabis plants or fewer.[2]
