Aerial view of the property in Aguanga, where seven people were shot dead at an illegal marijuana grow house
LOS ANGELES, Sept 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Investigators are searching for multiple suspects in the fatal shooting of seven people at a large, illegal marijuana cultivation and processing site in Southern California’s rural foothills, the Riverside County sheriff said.
The crime scene in the community of Aguanga, about 160km southeast of Los Angeles, was discovered by sheriff’s deputies responding early on Monday to a reported assault with a deadly weapon, Sheriff Chad Bianco said.
Six victims were found dead in and around a single dwelling on the sprawling property. A seventh victim, a woman still alive when deputies arrived about a half hour past midnight, died later at a local hospital, Bianco told a news conference.
As of Tuesday afternoon, sheriff’s detectives assisted by federal agents were still combing the site for evidence and interviewing witnesses.
“We believe at this time that there were multiple suspects,” he said.
More than 20 people lived at the property, a “major organised crime-type operation” consisting of multiple homes and other buildings, including a cannabis nursery and facilities for drying and processing marijuana plants, the sheriff said.
“All of the people that were on the site, that were potential witnesses or the victims, were Laotian,” he added, without elaborating on their ethnicity or immigration status.
Investigators seized more than 450kg of processed marijuana with a street value of US$1 million to US$5 million, along with a hundreds of live cannabis plants and a lab for extracting cannabis oil from them, he said.
While marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under US federal law, California in 2018 legalised possession and use of marijuana by adults for recreational purposes, as well as commercial cultivation and distribution by businesses specially licensed and regulated by the state.
But a marijuana black market still thrives, posing what law enforcement considers an ongoing public safety threat.
Bianco said the slayings in Aguanga marked the eighth homicide case – totalling 14 victims – related to his county’s illicit marijuana trade this year. “Marijuana is not a victimless crime,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
