“You can kind of reach some kind of peace where the different suppliers will agree. “There will either be violence or you will have cartels,” Hanink said. The strict definition of a cartel is an association of merchants that conspires to keep prices high and competition low. Hanink said cartels are not necessarily violent and that illegal marijuana growers are probably not looking to cause trouble, at least initially. “Whenever you have a high-priced commodity and you can’t meet demand, you are going to have some kind of black market, and you are going to have violence.” Why is this happening with something that you can get at a 7-Eleven?” Hanink said. “You saw almost overnight this explosion in black market cigarettes. Hanink recalled someone being accused of hiring a hit man to wipe out a dealer who was competing with his wife for business. Merchants began illegally importing cigarettes to avoid paying taxes. Peter Hanink, an assistant professor of sociology and criminology at Cal Poly Pomona, compared the marijuana troubles to an escalation of crime when New York state increased taxes on cigarettes in the late 2000s. That figure increased to 800 in 2020 and 1,200 by mid-2021, Nuñez said. Ignacio Nuñez, San Bernardino County’s code enforcement chief, said in a presentation in 2022 to the Board of Supervisors that in 2019, there were less than 200 active code enforcement investigations of illegal outdoor growing. Meanwhile, illegal growing has increased. That didn’t prevent the fatal shootings of seven people working at an illegal growing operation in the rural community of Aguanga in September 2020. In Riverside County, cultivation is permitted in 14 cities (but not the largest, Riverside) and all unincorporated areas, the website says. Cultivation is prohibited in all unincorporated areas. In San Bernardino County, only five cities allow cultivation, according to the state Department of Cannabis Control website: Barstow, Adelanto, Needles, San Bernardino and Colton. Some farmers have said that’s because not enough cities and counties issue permits. The black market can exist because legal cultivation of marijuana has not kept pace with the new demand. … We need to prevent these types of senseless murders from happening. “And that plague is the black market of marijuana and certainly cartel activity by the number of victims that are out there. “By allowing that, we’ve unleashed a plague in California,” Dicus said. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)ĭicus for years has urged legislators to strengthen penalties for illegal cultivation, to no avail. Violence associated with illegal marijuana growing ‘is a problem that is not really being talked about,’ Dicus said. 29, 2024, after announcing arrests of 5 men in the slayings of 6 people in a remote area of the desert during a marijuana deal. San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus answers questions on Jan. As a result, it has been difficult for law enforcement officers to discourage illegal pot farming. This law reduced the penalty for illegal cultivation from a felony to a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of $500. 64 in 2016, legalizing recreational marijuana and allowing the private growing of up to six cannabis plants for personal use. Several factors have contributed to the violence that is not limited to San Bernardino County, law enforcement officers and other experts say.Ĭalifornia voters approved Prop. Dispatchers used cell phone data to locate the victims. They were identified as brothers Toniel Baez-Duarte, 34, and Mateo Baez-Duarte, 24, of Apple Valley brothers Jose Nicolas Hernandez-Sarabia, 33 and Jose Gregorio Hernandez-Sarabia, 34, of Adelanto and Jose Manuel Burgos Parra, 26, of Adelanto.Ī 911 call from a man who said he had been shot but didn’t know where he was drew law enforcement to the remote crime scene north of Adelanto about 4 miles west of Highway 395 on Jan. They were taken into custody at a compound close to what authorities believe was going to be a marijuana grow.Īll five were booked on suspicion of murder and were being held without bail. The suspects were arrested as investigators served search warrants in Apple Valley, Adelanto and a portion of Piñon Hills that is in Los Angeles County. … This is a problem and this is a problem that is not really being talked about.” “But I can tell you that since we’ve been investigating illegal marijuana grows, there have been a number of body dumps related to this across our county. 29, in announcing the arrests of five people who he said gunned down the six before setting four bodies ablaze. “Anytime you have six people who are murdered, that’s shocking to your conscience,” Dicus said Monday, Jan. The only anomaly in this month’s slayings of six people during a marijuana deal gone wrong in the San Bernardino County desert, Sheriff Shannon Dicus said, was the number of people killed.
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