Police: Man shot in attempted Fairfield pot robbery

 Crime
Feb 112012
 

A Fairfield man was shot in the leg during what police say appears to have been an attempted robbery in south Santa Rosa late Friday. The shooting victim, Denzel Demetre Simmons, 20, said he was smoking outside a relative’s house home on Bellevue Avenue when some unknown person suddenly shot him around 11:35 p.m., police said. But 15 minutes later, when two other men said they’d been involved in a shooting after one of them had a gun put in his face, police decided they had yet to straighten out what had happened, Mary Callahan [...]

Feds charge Fresno men with interstate pot sales

 Marijuana News
Feb 112012
 

A federal grand jury has indicted half a dozen Fresno men in an alleged medical marijuana scheme that saw weed shipped to at least eight other states. The U.S. Attorney General, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and IRS made the announcement Friday, the Fresno Bee reports. The indictment is against Fresno men Joseph Edwin Gable, Elgeron Graves, Vincent Graves, Herman Graves, Damone Kelly and Catatea James. Kevin Eugene Spencer of Roseville also was indicted. The men are charged with money laundering and trafficking. (DEA press release.) Gable allegedly was in charge of a long-term interstate marijuana-trafficking [...]

30 bales of pot found floating off L.A. coast

 Marijuana News
Feb 032012
 

Thirty bales of marijuana with an estimated street value of $500,000 were found floating in the waters off Marina del Rey, sheriff’s deputies said Thursday. Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Carriles said a recreational boater first found five bales in the water around noon Wednesday and alerted deputies and the U.S. Coast Guard, Kristin S. Agostoni reports in the Los Angeles Daily News. Not long after, authorities found another 25 bales in the same vicinity – within a roughly 4-square-mile area about six nautical miles northwest of the harbor entrance, he said. Carriles said it appeared as [...]

Nevada City woman faces pot-sales charge in Illinois

 Marijuana News
Feb 032012
 

A Nevada City woman was arrested after being stopped in Illinois, for allegedly carrying 167 pounds of marijuana. Cara Ringland, 32, was pulled over by officers Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 80 near Peru, Ill., The Union of Grass Valley reports. She has been charged with unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, with a possible prison term of between six and 30 years with no possibility of probation. A bond hearing was pending Thursday. No further information was available from the La Salle County State’s Attorney.

Armed robbers hit Santa Cruz dispensary

 Crime
Feb 032012
 

SANTA CRUZ – Two armed men robbed a medical marijuana dispensary just after 7 p.m. Thursday. Employees inside the dispensary on the 3100 block of Paul Sweet Road reported that two armed men burst into the business wearing clown masks and sporting guns. They got away with an unknown amount of money from the safe. No one inside the business, Creme de Canna, was reported injured, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports. Police are looking for two Latino males, ages 15 to 20, thin build. One had a single-action revolver, the other had a small Beretta, [...]

Medical cannabis robbery victim seeks restitution

 Courts
Jan 242012
 

In what may be the first case of its kind in state history, a Healdsburg man whose marijuana was stolen in a home-invasion robbery will be allowed to seek restitution from the defendants. “It certainly does represent a milestone,” said Kris Hermes, a spokesman for Americans for Safe Access, an Oakland advocacy group for medical marijuana users. “I appreciate the court recognizing this as a lawful substance. Victims should be compensated.” But just how much Michael Steffens’ weed is worth will be open to debate, Paul Payne reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. His [...]

Smuggling boat, pot seized in Ventura County

 Crime
Jan 162012
 

Three people were arrested and marijuana was seized early Sunday after authorities found a smuggling boat near Point Mugu. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested three men they said were transporting drugs in a panga boat found off Pacific Coast Highway and Deer Creek Road, Ventura County sheriff’s officials said. Sheriff’s officials responded to a call about 5 a.m. Sunday to help ICE officials who were looking for the passengers on the boat, the Ventura County Star reports. ICE officials found the three men on foot near the area before 7:20 a.m., Capt. Dave Murray [...]

Patient denied victim services after robbery, beating

 Crime
Jan 162012
 

Michael Steffens gets a little nervous these days when he hears car wheels coming up his rural Healdsburg driveway or one of his dogs barking at the window. A little more than two years ago, the 51-year-old carpenter was the victim of a home-invasion robbery in which he was tied up and beaten by four men who dressed as police officers. Steffens survived and the men were quickly caught and punished, Paul Payne reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. But unlike other victims, Steffens said he’s been unable to get public assistance for the [...]

Arrests continue in Humboldt County growing operation

 Law Enforcement
Dec 202011
 

While looking to arrest the landowners associated with a massive marijuana growing operation busted in October near Mad River, police uncovered an entire McKinleyville apartment complex dedicated to growing pot. The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office served a search warrant Oct. 26 in a remote area of eastern Humboldt County that resulted in more than 40 arrests, the seizure of almost 2,000 growing plants, more than 1,450 pounds of dried marijuana and 240 pounds of processed marijuana buds. Most of those arrested at the scene were trimmers hired to process the dried marijuana into a [...]

Skuba convicted of pot robbery, murder in Santa Cruz

 Courts
Dec 172011
 
Skuba convicted of pot robbery, murder in Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ – A jury found Stewart Skuba, 34, guilty of murder for the 2009 death of Elias Sorokin on Friday. The former Westside hairdresser was accused of robbing, kidnapping and killing 29-year-old Sorokin on July 21, 2009 in a Felix Street garage and dumping the body off a North Coast cliff. His body has never been found but his burned truck was discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains several days after he was reported missing. Jurors returned with guilty verdicts on the murder and robbery charges, but was unable to reach a verdict on [...]

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