In an effort to enforce the August ban on medical marijuana collectives in the City of Long Beach, the Long Beach Police Department—with the assistance of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the State of California Franchise Tax Board (FTB), the Long Beach Fire Department, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office—conducted an operation that shut down seven dispensaries throughout the city Wednesday afternoon.
According to police, the nearly simultaneous raids were conducted on locations targeted because they were those that the Police Department had received the highest level of complaints for from the community.
“Effective, August 12, 2012, any dispensary that continues conducting business in the City of Long Beach is operating illegally,” said LBPD’s Nancy Pratt in a statement.
During the operation, over 40 individuals were taken into custody and marijuana plants, processed marijuana, currency and other evidence were seized. Those arrested were booked for owning and/or operating a marijuana dispensary.
Three of the seven locations also included grow operations and were red-tagged by the Long Beach Fire Department “for posing immediate life-safety hazards,” meaning that anyone caught entering will be arrested for tresspassing. All of the businesses will be forwarded to Business Licensing Section for review.
Though an eighth search warrant was obtained for a location at 301 Atlantic Ave., investigators received information that the operators had vacated the building and relocated.
“The L.B.P.D. is strongly urging the remaining dispensaries to voluntarily cease their operations,” Pratt said. “Any dispensary that continues to operate will be targeted for closure and those operating the business will be arrested.”
Anyone wishing to report dispensaries that continue to operate should contact the Narcotics Section at (562) 570-7221.
The following locations were shut down during Wednesday’s operations:
745 E. 4th Street (dispensary site)
2130 Cowles Street (cultivation/dispensary site – red-tagged)
1581 W. Wardlow Road (cultivation/dispensary site – red-tagged)
1735 E. 7th Street (cultivation/dispensary site – red-tagged)
2508 E. 10th Street (dispensary site)
3748 Atlantic Avenue dispensary site)
5115 Atlantic Avenue (dispensary site)
The map below lists all of the locations along with the dispensary’s name and photos from the police.
View Long Beach Dispensary Raids October 10, 2012 in a larger map