Officers emerge from 4th Street Long Beach Natural Health with confiscated cannabis products. Photos by Greggory Moore.

UPDATED 11:00AM THURSDAY | Information on all of seven of the dispensaries raided Wednesday as well as quotes from the LBPD on the operation can be found at our follow-up story here. 

ORIGINAL 3:33PM WEDNESDAY | At approximately 1PM Wednesday multiple medical-marijuana dispensaries—all of which were operational despite the City’s full ban on dispensaries that went into effect in August—were raided simultaneously by a combination of Long Beach police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

LBPD Detective Wayne Watson, lead officer at the scene of a raid being carried out at 4th Street Long Beach Natural Health (the scene of a recent protest), confirmed that multiple dispensaries had been raided on Wednesday.

“I don’t know the exact number,” Watson said. “Quite a few.”

The Long Beach Post recieved reports that at least four dispensaries were being raided, and that the DEA was involved in all if them. Watson confirmed the DEA’s involvement with the raids.

“[The DEA] is just assisting local law enforcement with the actual service of the search warrants,” he said.

An officer escorts an arrestee to a police car as another looks on at 4th Street Long Beach Green Room.

According to DEA Public Information Officer Sarah Pullen, “The DEA was providing assistance to the Long Beach Police Department in the service of several warrants. The warrants were obtained by the Long Beach Police Department and it is their investigation, so I would need to refer you to them for any information on this.”

The Post is awaiting comment from the LBPD.

Officers at the scene of 4th Street Long Beach Green Room declined to comment on the operation, which yielded at least two arrestees.

Det. Watson told the Post that six persons had been arrested at 4th Street Long Beach Natural Health, though he was unaware of grounds for their arrests, saying that the arresting officer was no longer on the scene, and that his (i.e., Watson’s) role in the operation was to collect evidence. Watson reported that four bags of plants were seized, along with six bags of edibles.

Watson noted that one of the arrestees was a security guard, who was in possession of a handgun. Watson said there were no incidents with the arrests.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.