Dennis RomeroFederal authorities today announced a crackdown on 36 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles County, including raids on two shops in Santa Fe Springs and warning letters to 34 businesses and property owners.
Interestingly, the actions did not involve any pot shops in the city of Los Angeles.
Rather, feds sought to shut out all of the known cannabis collectives in the following cities and communities:
Santa Fe Springs, Whittier, South El Monte, La Mirada, Diamond Bar, Artesia, Paramount, South Gate, City of Commerce, Agoura Hills and Malibu.
Search-warrant-enabled raids were conducted this morning at Tri-City Patient's Association and the Canna-America Collective (a.k.a. Organic Way Collective) on Rosecrans Avenue in Santa Fe Springs, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A.
Those two shops were also hit with federal civil asset forfeiture lawsuits. In other words, Uncle Sam is taking their weed.
A store on Telegraph road was told to shut down by the city as well, the feds noted.
The 34 that received warning letters will have to abandon ship, according to the office:
Credit: Goodiez
The warning letters give the operators and landlords 14 days to come into compliance with federal law or risk potential civil or criminal actions.
In case you're wondering, yes, this is part of that federal crackdown on pot shops in California that has so far seen 220 dispensaries targeted in the U.S. Attorney's Central District of the state alone.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says ” … the majority of those stores are now closed … “
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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