OC police raid locations in Orange County and Long Beach!!!

Police raid four O.C. locations over illegal pot sales

By DEEPA BHARATH
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

December 18, 2009 12:55 PM

Long Beach police officials have served a series of search warrants at
several marijuana dispensaries for illegal sales of drugs, including
four in Orange County.

The raids, which were carried out Thursday with the help of the Los
Angeles County District Attorney's Office, included Tangent Retail, a
medical marijuana clinic in Garden Grove also known as Unit D and three
locations that were not clinics in Fullerton, Anaheim and Westminster,
Long Beach Police Cmdr. Laura Farinella said today.

The raids resulted in the confiscation of "a large quantity of
marijuana" from the 17 locations in Long Beach and Orange County, and a
total of 15 people were arrested, Farinella said. She declined to
identify the locations, saying investigations are still ongoing. She
said she did not have the names of those arrested in the raids.

The enforcement was brought about as a result of complaints from Long
Beach residents about illegal marijuana sales in their neighborhoods,
Farinella said.

The search warrants were not served at medical marijuana clinics that
were operating legally, but only at residences and clinics that were
dispensing marijuana over-the-counter illegally, she said.

"We don't want anyone to think we're taking people's medicine away," she
said.

The clinic in Garden Grove, as well as the other three locations in
Orange County, had ties to illegal marijuana sales in Long Beach, which
is why the enforcement was extended to Orange County, Farinella said.

"Crime does not know boundaries," she said.

The department kept local agencies informed and worked together to help
serve the search warrants, Farinella said.

Garden Grove police Lt. Travis Whitman said today he did not know if any
of his department's officers went out to Unit D. He said the
investigation and enforcement were carried out entirely by Long Beach
police.

The Garden Grove City Council in September passed an ordinance banning
medical marijuana dispensaries in the city. But Unit D continued
operating and the city or its police department has not taken any action
so far.

In fact, the clinic renewed its business license after the passage of
the ordinance.