Captain Robert Warrick of the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s Station, was the guest on the Z1077 Up Close Show two weeks ago (December 16). As part of his conversation with Gary Daigneault, Captain Warrick discussed Operation: Hammerstrike.
The operation, which concluded on August 26 of this year, saw special county funding go to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, under Sheriff Shannon Dicus, to eradicate illegal marijuana grows. Though growing marijuana is legal in certain areas of California, these illegal grows, many of which popped up in the Morongo Basin, are disastrous for our fragile desert environment, and contribute to violence in the area.
Captain Warrick discussed the success of the operation, saying:
“There were a lot of illegal grows here in the Morongo Basin, and at the time Hammer Strike started, I was not working here, but I knew, whether I was in public affairs or my previous assignment in Yucaipa, just how much of a problem it was here in the Morongo Basin. Sheriff Dicus listened to the residents up here, worked with the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, and I’m proud to say, did something about it.”
“We seized over a billion dollars in marijuana, and that’s a low “street value” estimate. We eradicated over 8800 illegal greenhouses, arrested over a thousand people. Now that’s county-wide, but a huge chunk of those were here in the Morongo Basin.
Daigneault asked Captain Warrick about the types of consequences that illegal growers and property owners faced under Operation Hammestrike, to which Captain Warrick said
“They are liens on properties, because what happens a lot of times is, a big chunk of land is owned by somebody out of state or a corporation, and it’s very difficult to contact that owner. Somebody sets up shop, and they start stealing from the water table, using chemicals that you cannot use at all in California, but because it’s illegal and not regulated, they are using that for their crops. When you start to attach a financial impact, all of a sudden you find out real quick who those property owners are, and in addition to eradicating the greenhouses and seizing the marijuana and arresting the individuals, now it’s the property owners’ responsibility to clean that up, and there are some significant fines that go with that.”
Captain Warrick explained that, though Operation Hammer Strike has officially concluded, Sheriff’s Deputies are continuing to target illegal marijuana grows in our area.
“Operation Hammer Strike did end, but the Sheriff worked with the Board of Supervisors, and specifically our supervisor out here, Dawn Rowe. This is a problem that will continue, and though Hammer Strike is over and the dozens of deputies who were assigned to assist with that operation have gone back to their patrol stations, the Sheriff worked with the Board of Supervisors to create a second full-time marijuana team. So as soon as one pops up, it gets reported and our Deputies are right back out investigating it, as if Hammer Strike never stopped.”
The Up Close Show, hosted by Gary Daigneault, runs every Friday morning at 10 a.m. here on Z107.7
To hear the entire conversation with Captain Warrick, you can listen to the Up Close Show right here:
