While specifics of the search warrants were still being kept under wraps, the Long Beach Police Department confirmed Tuesday that 15 search warrants were served and that 17 people were arrested during last week's operation.
Both the LBPD and the office of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley confirmed last week they were working together on an investigation into illegal sales of marijuana at various medical marijuana dispensaries.
Sgt. Dina Zapalski, a Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman, said the department was not going to release the names of those arrested because charges have not yet been filed with the DA's office.
Because the people arrested are out of custody, authorities have time to finish their investigation and expect to bring charges sometime in the New Year, the sergeant said.
"There's a lot of information they're going over and there's still a large amount of evidence the detectives are sifting through," Zapalski said Tuesday.
The sergeant confirmed that warrants were served at 15 locations throughout Southern California.
Among those arrested, all of whom are either owners or employees of marijuana dispensaries, were nine Long Beach residents, four Garden Grove residents, two people from Anaheim, one person from Westminster and one Perris resident, she said.
Three marijuana dispensaries were searched last week. Two are located in Long Beach and one is in Garden Grove. All three are believed to be connected, the sergeant said.
Long Beach police Cmdr. Laura Farinella said last Thursday that the police department's Narcotics Division was working with other officers on the force and the district attorney's office to serve warrants at several locations that had generated numerous complaints from neighbors about illegal, over-the-counter sales of pot.
Chris Glew, an attorney representing a cooperative located on Fourth Street at Elm Avenue, said he has yet to see any documentation from authorities who served warrants at his clients' business and home, but he insisted the dispensary has always operated within the state's Compassionate Use laws.
Glew said last week that the district attorney and the police department "appear to be operating under the theory that everything is illegal, they seem to interpret any collective or dispensary is operating against the voter's initiative."
The initiative outlined by Prop. 215 - the compassionate use act that legalized marijuana for California patients suffering from debilitating conditions and disorders - was passed by voters in 1996.
Patients seek permission to use marijuana from doctors under both Prop. 215 and a follow-up 2003 law, which clarified the original proposition and ordered counties to issue identification cards to patients.
Arguments over how to distribute the drug, however, have simmered on national, state and local levels ever since the 1996 passage of Prop. 215.
Source: Contra Costa Times
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