After Home Invasion Robbery, Police Discover Marijuana Growing Operation At Woodland Hills Home
Call me crazy, but if your marijuana growing business gets robbed I think you just eat the loss and don’t bother calling the police.
“Officer, they beat us up and stole our drugs!”
WOODLAND HILLS – A man was in custody today on suspicion of growing marijuana inside his Woodland Hills residence after he called police to report a home invasion robbery.
Police were also searching for two men in their 20s who broke into the home, beat the residents and took cash from them.
The robbery occurred around 9:15 p.m. Monday in the 22000 block of Mulholland Drive, said Sgt. Jeff Collada of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga Station.
“We believe this all stems from the narcotics activity in the residence,” Sgt. Thomas Mason of the Topanga Station said this morning.
The resident who was robbed “was arrested after they found approximately 50 plants” in the residence, Mason said. “There was lighting, hydroponics, ventilation — the usual set-up.”
The residential neighborhood is west of the junction with Topanga Canyon Boulevard and south of the Ventura (101) Freeway.
Collada urged anyone with information about the case to call LAPD Topanga Station detectives at 818-756-4820.
Popularity: 3%
LA City Council Passes Pot Ordinance
Well, you can rest assured that this will lead to many, many lawsuits before there is a real resolution. I’m sure the saddest people involved in this are the real commercial real estate owners that will end up with many vacant storefronts. Maybe.
In a 9-3 vote, the Los Angeles City Council today gave its final approval to an ordinance that will shut down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries and impose strict rules on the location and operation of the dispensaries that are allowed.
The measure passed quickly, without debate.
The ordinance, which the council first began discussing more than 4 1/2 years ago, will cap the number of dispensaries at 70 but make an exception to allow all those that registered with the city in 2007 and have remained open. City officials believe that number is around 150.
Hundreds of dispensaries have opened in Los Angeles as the City Council debated its proposed ordinance and failed to enforce a moratorium on new dispensaries. City officials believe there are more than 500 that will be required to close under the ordinance, but some are already preparing to sue the city and collect signatures to force a referendum on the ordinance.
The ordinance also requires dispensaries to be at least 1,000 feet from other dispensaries and so-called sensitive uses, such as schools, parks and libraries. Among other restrictions, dispensaries will be required to close at 8 p.m. and will not be permitted to allow marijuana use at the stores.
The ordinance will not take effect until after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signs it and the City Council approves the fees that dispensaries will have to pay to cover the city’s cost of monitoring. City officials are studying those costs and expect to propose the fees soon.
Once the ordinance is in place, the city attorney’s office will send letters to affected landlords and dispensary operators telling them that they must close immediately. If the dispensaries remain open, the city attorney’s office likely will take them to court.
– John Hoeffel at City Hall
As you might imagine there are tons of comments both ways on the article. Even if you’re for pot smoking, pot legalization, etc. you should be angry at the city for not enforcing any guidelines on the dispensaries and allowing hundreds upon hundreds of them to be opened – many of them in Woodland Hills. Welcome to the totally ineffective and incompetent government of the City of Los Angeles, and State of California.
The reality is that defending the ordinance will probably end up costing so much that it will be abandoned.
From Dennis Zine’s Newsletter last week:
Medical Marijuana Ordinance Finally Passes
This week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to adopt a permanent ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries. After over five years of deliberation and many modifications, the ordinance will be before Council for a second reading next Tuesday. The first reading of the ordinance passed by 11 votes.
Highlights of the ordinance include:
- Priority order for compliance will be given to the original 186 operators who registered during the initial Interim Control Ordinance.
- Collectives/cooperatives must operate in compliance with state law and thus, not operate be for profit. They will be subject to annual audits to ensure that they follow the law.
- Collectives/cooperatives will have to locate 1000 feet from sensitive uses, i.e. churches, parks, libraries, and from one another.
- Dispensaries cannot be located next to or across the street from residential uses or zones.
- Collectives will have to comply with conditions of operation including hours of operation, limited signage, conducting daily cash drops to the bank, and have security guards.
The ordinance needs a simple majority of the Council to pass next Tuesday. Upon adoption, the ordinance will be sent to the Mayor for consideration. The final version of the ordinance can be downloaded online at:
http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=08-0923
Councilman Zine believes that enacting these regulations will shut down a large number of the illegally operating dispensaries while protecting patient’s access to medicine as allowed by California’s Compassionate Use Act. Councilman Zine began this process in 2005 and initiated the initial Interim Control Ordinance in 2007.
Popularity: 2%
Exploring The Canoga Park Pot Factory and Updated Pictures
So, yesterday I posted a picture of the warehouse at 8411 Canoga Ave where the LAPD uncovered a pot farm earlier this week. Turns out, the unit of the building with the facility was a different one than I photographed. Their unit was actually even closer to the Topanga Station’s rear gate than the one I posted.
Check out the above video which takes you on a tour of the facility and includes interviews with some of the neighbors – including the son of comedian Paul Rodriguez (best known for his groundbreaking work in A Million to Juan) – who has a skateboarding school in an adjacent unit.
Here are the accurate photos:
Popularity: 1%
Let’s Start Our Pot Growing Business Next To A Police Station. Brilliant!
8411 Canoga Avenue, Canoga Park
[UPDATE: Above, picture is of wrong unit. See this post for corrected photos and video.]
This morning I took a picture of the industrial warehouse in Canoga Park where cops confiscated over 800 marijuana plants yesterday. Literally, behind me in the picture is a wall, behind which is probably 50 police cars, and a gate which has police officers and vehicles coming and going all day long. Just being there made me check my license, registration, tags, and tire levels. You’d have to be the biggest idiot in the world to be operating an illicit business out of that facility.
Now I’m sure someone’s mom will post a comment, “My son was just doing this to help sick people with their cancer pain!” Here are some Daily News pictures from inside the building.
A little map I mocked up for your edification:
8411 Canoga Ave & Topanga Station Overview
Brilliant!
Popularity: 1%
Sophisticated Pot Farm Found In Building Near Topanga Station (Canoga Park)
I dunno about you, but if I was gonna start a huge marijuana growing operation I’d do it a little further from the police station. As many of you know, Topanga Station is the LAPD community station that services most of the west valley, including Woodland Hills. Note: The MyFoxLA video seems raw/unedited, and takes 10 seconds before they start to pan around the facility. [See This Article For Picture of Building Exterior]
Canoga Park – Los Angeles police today busted a sophisticated marijuana farm inside an industrial building 25 feet from the back door of the Topanga Community Police Station.
About a week ago, officers smelled marijuana coming from the building at 8411 Canoga Ave., just a few feet from the station at 21501 Schoenborn St., said Officer Karen Rayner of the LAPD’s Media Relations Section.
They notified the narcotics unit which started an investigation.
“They noticed that traffic in and out of the building was very minimal. The ventilation had also been upgraded. The utility bills were disproportionately higher. The rooms in the building were filled with hydroponics equipment,” Rayner said.
Rayner said the farmers had also “gone to great lengths to filter the air coming out of every hole that might leak to the outside.” She said that all the places where the smell might have come had been plugged with liquid caulking stuff.
“But it was not enough,” Rayner said. “Their luck ran out.”
Three suspects were still being booked so their names could not be released, Rayner said. The amount of marijuana in the building had not yet been tabulated.
A warrant was served in the building about 3 p.m. Detectives estimated the operation had been going on for about eight months, Rayner said.
The afternoon bust was made a week after an LAPD Gang Impact Team whiffed evidence coming from the building at at 8411 Canoga Ave.
“Our gang officers were in the parking lot. The air was still. The breeze was right. They could smell growing pot,” said Los Angeles police Lt. Stephen M. Carmona, commander of detectives at the Topanga station.
Not 25 feet from an 8-foot wall along the cop shop was an industrial warehouse that Carmona said contained 850 marijuana plants of different sizes.
The owner of the building was not implicated.
Popularity: 2%
The Medical Marijuana Dispensaries of Woodland Hills
Since the LA City attorney and the city council has been laying some strong anti-dispensary rhetoric recently, I figured I’d take a look around our area and catalog the marijuana dispensaries. Please leave comments or e-mail contact@hillsofwoodland.com if you know of others.
Popularity: 2%
Woodland Hills Shooting Victim, 21 Year Old Male, Knew Attackers
Contra Costa Times:
Police are searching for two men suspected of shooting a 21-year-old man multiple times in his chest early this morning at his Woodland Hills home.
The man has survived the attack and remains hospitalized.
Authorities have no motive for the shooting, but said it’s not a random attack. The wounded man knew the gunmen, said robbery Detective Jeffrey Briscoe, Los Angeles Police Department, Topanga division.
“He was confronted by some guys he had known,” said Briscoe. “They have a past.”
I sure I hope I don’t have any friends like that.
Popularity: 1%
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