The slayings of six men last week at a remote desert intersection that authorities believe stemmed from an illegal marijuana deal gone bad highlighted a long-standing problem in California: an underground marijuana market that thrives despite years of legal sales expected to eradicate it.
The killings provide a tragic reminder of the violence that can come with illegal marijuana activity, including unlicensed cultivation operations, brazen robberies from legitimate businesses and fraudulent illegal shipments to out-of-state vendors.
“The violence is getting worse. The stakes are getting higher,” said dispensary owner Jerred Kiloh, who also heads the United Cannabis Business Association, a trade group based in Los Angeles.
He said many members of the organization have seen their dispensaries robbed one or more times, sometimes by the same thieves.
“We keep talking about what we know is the problem,” Kiloh said, “but we don’t do anything about it.”
Authorities found the body on January 23 in the Mojave Desert outside the sparsely populated community of El Mirage.
Deputies found six people dead in a remote area of Southern California’s Mojave Desert on January 23. KESQ
Five suspects have been arrested, and each faces multiple charges, including six counts of felony murder.
Two pleaded not guilty, and the remaining three are still scheduled to be arraigned. They are being held without bail.
The area where the bodies were found, about 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles, is known for illegal marijuana operations.
“This is a problem that’s not really being talked about,” San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus lamented, calling on lawmakers to reform marijuana laws to “maintain legalization but go back to tougher penalties for illegal pot users.”
(LR) Toniel Baez-Duarte, Mateo Baez-Duarte, Jose Nicolas Hernandez-Sarabia, Jose Gregorio Hernandez-Sarabia, and Jose Manuel Burgos Parra were arrested in the case of 6 bodies found in the desert. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
The killings come at a time when California’s heavily regulated marijuana industry continues to struggle while underground businesses sometimes operate openly.
California has long been the nation’s largest producer of marijuana, prized for its fragrant and powerful buds. Voters in 2016 approved Proposition 64 to legalize and tax the multibillion-dollar industry, and the law boldly stated that widespread legal sales would “undermine the black market.”
Democrat Gavin Newsom, who was lieutenant governor at the time, called the law a “game changer.”
Legal adult-use sales have faced challenges from the start. The state’s illegal market has thrived for decades, anchored in the storied “Emerald Triangle” at the northern tip of the state. Since the end of Prohibition in 1933, efforts have been made to reshape the vast illegal economy into a legal one.
Authorities found the body on January 23 in the Mojave Desert outside the sparsely populated community of El Mirage. ABC30
Most users continue to buy pot on the illegal market, where they avoid taxes that can approach 50% in some communities.
Many California cities do not establish legal marijuana markets or ban commercial marijuana activities. Meanwhile, law enforcement can’t keep up with the spread of illegal sales and growing.
Proposition 64 reduced the potential criminal penalties for growing and selling marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and six months in jail. There are no active proposals in the Legislature this year to increase criminal penalties.
Dicus said in 2023 his department served 411 search warrants for illegal marijuana cultivation sites across the county and netted $370 million.
Deputies found 655,000 plants and 74,000 pounds of processed marijuana and 14 labs producing honey oil, a potent marijuana concentrate. Eleven search warrants were served directly in the desert area where the murder took place, he said.
The killings come at a time when California’s heavily regulated marijuana industry continues to struggle while underground businesses sometimes operate openly. AP
“The reality is that Proposition 64, in the fine print, took illegal marijuana and moved it from a felony to a misdemeanor. And the reality is to admit that we have launched an epidemic in California,” Dicus said at a press conference Monday.
Marijuana attorney Griffen Thorne noted that in 2023, state investigators served 24 search warrants against illegal operations between October and December and 188 for the year, too few to disrupt the vast underground market that dwarfs the legal market.
He said violence is a predictable consequence of illegal activity and “things like that will continue to happen as long as the state allows the illegal market to spiral out of control.”
Proposed legislation recently passed by the state Senate aims to expand the power of state and local agencies to seize property and equipment associated with illegal crops.
The killings in the desert are not the first of the marijuana dispute.
In 2020, seven people were fatally shot at an illegal marijuana grow operation in a rural town in nearby Riverside County. More than 20 people live on the property, which has several temporary dwellings used to produce honey oil.
Although marijuana remains a controlled substance under federal law, 38 states have legalized medical marijuana and 24 have legalized its widespread sale for adult use.
Kiloh and other industry experts predict the problem will worsen as legitimate operators can’t make money pulling out of the industry.
Prominent marijuana companies have previously warned that the state’s legal industry could collapse without tax cuts and expansion of retail sales.
“It’s tragic, and I think it’s a direct reflection of what this industry and this government have done,” Kiloh said. “We have invited organized crime to come back to California and compete for the illegal market.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
