Hemet Sheriff’s joined the National Guard and many other police departments in Anza, CA., on the morning of June 5th, 2019. They have been working on this case for some time and June 5th was the day where they would strike. Over 140,000 plants were seized with a collected estimated street value of nearly $190 million. The scene was crazy up in Anza with hundreds of officers and soldiers working together to clean up the town. Officers were armed with military grade assault rifles, there were multiple military vehicles spread out around Anza and military helicopters surveying the skies for runaways and farms. When it was all said and done, law enforcement found 3,000 pounds of processed marijuana that was ready to start making its way out of state where supposedly the street value is higher than it is in California currently.
This particular drug bust goes down as one of the largest in California history, eight people were arrested that day and some more arrests are expected to be made.The criminals who organized the farms are facing multiple charges that will most likely result in many years behind bars. These people were not just “innocent growers” operating within their rights, officers also found 27 firearms varying in types from pistols to illegal assault weapons. All in all this was a great showing by the Hemet Sheriff’s department, who worked all day clearing farms and greenhouses. Sheriff Bianco’s crew acted swiftly and were successful, fortunately no officers were harmed during the operation making this a great testimony to Sheriff Bianco’s effort to clean up the streets of Hemet & San Jacinto. Even though this bust took place in Anza it has a direct effect on our community, it is like Sheriff Bianco is putting criminals on notice, he is here to do what he said he would do.
A lot of Anza residents spoke out on the matter and many were thankful for the law enforcement shutting down the grow operations in their town. They said that in the last few months crime has been on the rise and have noticed more gang members around than usual. Things have been disappearing in the middle of the night at multiple peoples locations and there was even a murder at one of the farms just hours before the drug bust went down.
The Hemet Sheriffs will keep the pressure on illegal growing/distribution of marijuana and with crime rates dropping around the city, I would expect them to crack down even harder on such infractions in hopes that it will help end gang/cartel business in our local area. This bust should encourage people who own legal businesses to operate within their guidelines, because if they don’t Sheriff Bianco’s crew may be knocking down your door any day.
Drug Bust
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For crying out loud, alot is two words. As in, “A lot of Anza residents spoke out on the matter and many”.
Hi Larry! Thank you for your observation. We have corrected the missing space in the article.
Thank you for reading our paper, have a great day!
Sincerely,
The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle staff