Authorities in California said an illicit marijuana operation showed an organized crime where seven people were shot dead in a rural property in Aguanga, Southern California.
Someone called 911 on Monday morning and reported fired shots and assault with a deadly weapon. Deputies responded to the call and arrived at the scene where they found a woman who had several gunshot wounds.
She was taken to the hospital by an ambulance but succumbed to the wounds on arrival. Deputies searched the property and discovered six more victims who had died at the scene from gunshot wounds.
They also seized more than 1000 pounds of marijuana, several hundred marijuana plants, and a nursery. The product was estimated to be of £5 million street value.
The property housed 20 occupants and had several makeshift sheds, marijuana cultivation spaces, and a harvest processing and cannabis oil extraction areas.
‘This was not a small operation,’ Bianco said. ‘This is a very organized-crime type of an operation.’
Riverside County Sheriff, Chad Bianco, said in a press conference on Tuesday that the investigation into the crime would most likely involve other states and other countries as the vehicles seized on the property were not registered in California, and the victims or potential witnesses were Laotians.
“All of the people who were on-site that were potential witnesses or the victims, were Laotians,”
“We believe at this time that there were multiple suspects,” he added. “We are still processing the scene, we are still processing our witnesses and potential witnesses for any information that they may be able to provide us that can lead us to the identification of suspects.”
The motive for the mass killings is still unclear, and a search on the property did not immediately locate the suspects.
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Although the production and sale of cannabis and its related products are legal in California, illegal commercial marijuana continues to thrive.
This is attributed to the hefty legal taxes subjected to cannabis production, which leads to consumers looking for better deals in the illegal market.
Jerred Kiloh, the head of the United Cannabis Business Association and a cannabis dispensary owner, said that farmers and illegal business owners could not turn to authorities when they got robbed. That’s why many crimes in the industry are not reported.
‘When you have money and high returns, people want to take that from you’… ‘That’s why the violence becomes worse and worse,’ Kiloh said.