Federal operation searches 74 Sacramento-area houses in grow crackdown
Hundreds of federal agents and local officers searched about 74 houses and two offices across the Sacramento region on 3 and 4 April 2018 and filed forfeiture actions against over 100 homes tied to a China-funded grow network, seizing about 61,050 plants and some 200 kg of processed marijuana.
🇺🇸 Sacramento area, California · California, United States
On 3 and 4 April 2018 hundreds of federal agents and local officers executed search warrants at about 74 houses across the Sacramento region suspected of holding industrial-scale indoor marijuana grows, plus two related business offices.[1][2]At the same time, prosecutors filed civil forfeiture actions against more than 100 houses in the region tied to the same network, in one of the largest residential forfeiture efforts in US history.[1][2]
The operation targeted a network under investigation since 2014 in which down payments on suburban homes were wired mainly from Fujian Province in China, often through straw buyers and hard-money lenders, and the houses were converted into grows whose harvests were shipped east, including through Atlanta, Chicago and New York.[1][2]Agents seized about 61,050 marijuana plants and some 200 kg of processed marijuana, along with 15 firearms.[1]The Associated Press also reported at least $68,500 in cash seized.[2]
None of the buyers was arrested during the operation, and prosecutors said criminal charges had not been filed at that stage.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The Associated Press reported lower same-day seizure figures of 36,000 plants and 115 kg of processed marijuana, while this report uses the FBI's afternoon totals.
No buyers were arrested and no criminal charges had been filed at this stage of the investigation.
The reports do not say how many of the searched houses were also subject to the forfeiture actions.
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