Recently in marijuana Category

ARCADIA -- Police investigating a report of a woman screaming earlier this week found an indoor marijuana garden of 15 plants, authorities said Friday.
Christopher Yip, 27, and Kristal Koch, 26, were arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, Arcadia police Sgt. Tom Le Veque said. Both were believed to live in the home where the pot was found.
"It was primarily in the garage, and then there was also a couple of plants found in the bedroom," he said.
The incident began about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday when someone called police to report hearing a woman screaming inside a house in the 300 block of San Miguel Drive, the statement said.
Officers arrived to investigate and talked to Yip and Koch at the home, police said.
"Both subjects denied hearing anyone screaming," the statement said.
Police then performed a brief search of the home to make sure there was no one inside needing help.
"Any time we go on a call like that," he added, "we have an obligation to make sure no one is hurt or injured in the home."
When officers spotted what appeared to be a small marijuana-growing operation, Le Veque said, detectives obtained a search warrant for the home.
A total of 15 plants were found in the home, police said.
The suspects made use of their right to remain silent following their arrest, Le Veque said. "They made no statements."
Police found no indication that Yip or Koch had a physician's recommendation to use or grow marijuana.
According to sheriff's booking records, Yip is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, while Koch was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail. Both are due in Pasadena Superior Court Tuesday for arraignment.

PHOTO courtesy of the Arcadia Police Department

West Covina police officers joined a multi-agency task force Friday to seize $1.75 million worth of marijuana and arrest two men, police said.
Enrique Lopez, 28, of Paramount and Paulino Rivera, 18, of Lynwood were arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sales and transporting marijuana, West Covina police said in a written statement. Rivera was also suspected of possessing a concealed handgun.
West Covina police joined the effort, which took place in Lynwood and Paramount, to provide extra manpower at the request of a multi-agency task force, West Covina police Lt. Dave Rozeboom said.
Six West Covina officers, working with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and other agencies that make up the L.A. IMPACT task force, found 3,700 pounds of pot in a car in Lynwood and a Paramount home, West Covina police Lt. David Rozeboom said.
"It is one of the larger amounts that we've seized," he said.
The incident began about 8 p.m. as officials were watching a house at 10845 McNerney Avenue in Lynwood where drug activity was suspected, West Covina police said in a written statement.
Sheriff's deputies spotted Lopez leaving the home and pulled him over for a traffic violation, police said, when they discovered he did not have a valid driver's license and impounded the car.
"During an inventory search," the statement said, "600 pounds of marijuana was located."
"They gained information that led them to the (house)," Rozeboom added.
Police served a search warrant on a house at 6843 San Miguel Ave. in Paramount, police said, where another 3,100 pounds of marijuana was found.
Officials arrested Rivera near the home, who was allegedly was carrying a concealed handgun, Rozeboom said. Two vehicles were seized from the home.
According to sheriff's booking records, Lopez and Rivera were each being held in lieu of $100,000 bail at the West Covina Police Department's jail. They were due for arraignment Tuesday in West Covina Superior Court.
Friday was not the first time West Covina police have partnered with other agencies to seize large amounts of marijuana.
In June, West Covina police officers were asked to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs officials to seize 3,500 pounds of marijuana that was concealed in a truck in Montebello.
The shipment, which originated in Mexico, was placed into makeshift boxes that were designed to look like stacks of lumber.

*PHOTO couresy of the West Covina Police Department

From the Associated Press:

IMPERIAL BEACH -- Border Patrol agents say two men on surfboards have been
arrested after they were found off of Imperial Beach towing another surfboard laden with marijuana.
Border Patrol spokesman Ralph DeSio says the men were arrested late Thursday. They were spotted about 200 yards offshore.
Agents towed them back to shore and turned the suspects over the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
DeSio says the men told agents they were Mexican citizens in the U.S. illegally.
The marijuana was tightly wrapped in bundles weighing 141 pounds and with an estimated street value of $84,600.

West Covina police, working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, seized about 3,500 pounds of Mexican marijuana Friday hidden in camouflaged crates in a tractor-trailer, authorities said.
The pot, with an estimated street price of more than $10 million, was discovered in an industrial area in Cerritos shortly after 8 a.m., West Covina police Lt. Paul LaCommare said.
"This will be a costly seizure for the smugglers," he said.
The marijuana was hidden inside makeshift crates disguised to look like stacks of lumber, West Covina police Chief Frank Wills said.
"It was just all nailed together," he said.
Seven crates in total were found inside the truck, each containing about 500 pounds of pot each, LaCommare said.
The crates were pushed to the very front of the trailer and hidden behind legitimate cargo, he said.
No one was inside the truck when the seizure was made, and no one has been arrested, LaCommare said. The investigation was in its early stages.
The truck was discovered in the area of Alondra Boulevard and Shoemaker Avenue in Cerritos, LaCommare said, however he declined to say what specific business it was found at or who owned the truck. He added it was possible the involved businesses were not aware of the marijuana.
The shipment originated in Mexico, he said.
"Any time you have a load that big, it's going to go through cartels or major narcotics traffickers," LaCommare said. "At this point, we're investigating to see who's involved."
He said the West Covina Police Department became involved in the investigation at the request of ICE.

 

As can be seen in this YouTube video of a Wednesday press conference, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced an end to federal raids of medical marijuana clinics in the 11 states where they are legal, such as California, where pot has been legal for medical use since Proposition 215 passed in 1996.

What are your thoughts on medical marijuana?

Crime out of control in Pasadena:

PASADENA - Three 14-year-old girls appear to have been sexually assaulted at a home in Northwest Pasadena after going home with two adult men on Monday, police said.

Police received a call from a neighbor at 2:30 p.m. after she heard one of the girls screaming and attempting to leave the home, according to Pasadena Police Lt. Randall Taylor.

The home, at 255 Idaho Street, off Lincoln Avenue and not far from the Rose Bowl, appears to not be inhabited, said Taylor. The two men who brought the girls there were not present when police showed up to the address, he added.

"It looks like this house was not lived in," said Taylor. He said, however, that police are using property records to attempt to track down the assault offenders.

At 4:00 Monday afternoon, over 10 officers were present at the address. The home looked empty, with newspapers in the window, and debris piled up in a driveway on the side of the house.

The girls met the men at the Pacific Paseo mall at Colorado Boulevard, and invited them back to their place, said Taylor. The girls had skipped school Monday, he added.

The men brought out alcohol and marijuana when they brought the girls back to the house, Taylor said.

A pair of brazen robbers opened fire inside a medical marijuana dispesary in Mission Hills Friday before helping themselved to cash and pot, the Associated Press reports.

MISSION HILLS-- Police say two men robbed a medical marijuana facility in Mission Hills and made off with cash and drugs.
Los Angeles police Lt. Darryl Grayson says the two men entered the facility on Friday and opened fire. No one was injured but the robbers took $200 to $300 in cash and an unknown amount of medical marijuana.
Grayson says police surrounded the building but the gunmen has already escaped and police dogs were unable to find them.

Going through old clip files today, I decided to pull two ratty envelopes. The first was labeled Crime, Murder, 1967. The second was Crime, Murder, 1967.

Here's a short crime story from May 2, 1968:

'HIPPIE HOUSE'

Monrovian Fatally Shot in Scuffle

A Monrovia youth was shot to death Wednesdat during a fight at a Sierra Madre "hippie" house and police have arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

Fatally wounded in the shooting was George D. Corbin, 19, of 1315 S. Mountain Avenue. He was shot in the upper chest with a .22 caliber pistol.

Booked by Sierra Madre police on charges of murder and assault with intest to commit murder was Bruce Allan Lewis, 535 Brookside Lane, Sierra Madre.

Police said Corbin was pronounced dead at St. Luke Hospital in Pasadena shortly after the shooting.

Another youth -- Michael Fulsom, 19, of 735 E. Beckville St., Duarte -- was shot in the right hand during the scuffle at the Brookside Lane house. He was transported to the County  Hospital prison ward in serious condition.

Detectives said Corbin and four friends, including one girl, were at the Brookside Land house when a fight erupted.

Corbin and Duncan J. Demming Jr., 21, also of 535 Brookside Lane apparently started fighting and Lewis joined in the scuffle.

Fulsom was later booked on several outstanding traffic warrants and Demming was charged with possessing marijuana.

Police said the "hippie" house was in the Sierra Madre Canyon area, whoch used to be an artists colony."

 

El Monte police found themselves in the middle of a bona-fide crime wave earlier this week. Bethania Palma pieced it all together for an article that ran in today's Tribune. Crime Scene gotta give a shout out to Detective Ralph Batres, who rolled to all the incidents described below and found time to answer his telephone in the process. 

EL MONTE - A stabbing, a shooting, three search warrants leading to a major pot bust and a bomb scare involving 30 pounds of TNT.
It's a roll call of major crime that sounds like it could fit neatly into a busy month for any police department.
But in El Monte, those calls made up part of a frantic 48 hours that saw police handle two homicides - making arrests in both cases; bust up a $2 million pot operation 15 miles away in Rowland Heights; and swiftly clear a neighborhood endangered by 30 pounds of TNT.
"We have a very active city," said police Chief Ken Weldon. "It's a challenge to stay on top of it." 

Who knew there were gated communities in El Monte? Apparently they exist. The last time I remember running into one it was a front for a slave-labor sweat shop.

In any event, today's gated community involves the discovery of a grow home, $1 million in plants and three arrests. Here's the lowdown:

EL MONTE - Police arrested three San Gabriel residents Thursday and raided three homes in connection with a nearly $1 million pot operation.

Authorities believe Henry Kwong, 22, Yue Huan Mai, 25, and Denise Guan, 32, were all involved in a "sophisticated " operation that netted about 700 marijuana plants.

Officers found the plants in three second-floor bedrooms at a home in the 2800 block of North Maxson Road -- an El Monte gated community called Maxson Villas, El Monte police Det. Peter Lopez said.

Police have linked the suspects to a second Walnut home allegedly being converted to support marijuana cultivation and a third San Gabriel home, where tools for a pot grow, thousands of dollars in cash and a pound of marijuana were found, Lopez said.

Story here. 

A man suspected of cultivating Marijuana was targeted by a couple of 211 specialists, police told reporter Dan Abendschein. Here's an excerpt:

PASADENA - An armed robbery took place Thursday night at the apartment of a man authorities described as a pot dealer and grower.

Police confiscated about 200 plants of marijuana and several guns from the apartment of the victim, who was confronted around 6:10 p.m. by three armed suspects who entered his home, according to Lt. Alex Uribe of the Pasadena Police Department.

The victim was held captive while two of the men searched the apartment for cash, said Uribe.

He added that the detectives suspected the suspects knew the apartment was a place they would find cash.

"We don't know for sure yet, but I'd venture to guess they knew that there was dealing going on there," said Uribe.

The apartment is located at 365 Hastings Ranch Road, said Uribe.

While the suspects were in the home, a second victim knocked on the door, said suspects. While the suspects were taking him inside, the first victim broke through a window and fled, injuring himself in the process, Uribe said.

He went to a neighboring apartment and called the police, Uribe added.

The victim has not yet been arrested for marijuana cultivation or sales, said Uribe, but he said he expected the arrest to come soon.

According to CBS News. They are also giving out Viagra, and "Pain Medications" according to a spokesman in this video.