San Bernardino Sheriff Shannon Dicus was the guest on last week’s Up Close Show and explained the importance of curtailing illegal marijuana grows in the high desert. With a recap of the interview, here is reporter Jef Harmatz.
Sheriff Dicus said that illegal marijuana grows are the largest quality of life issue facing San Bernardino County at the moment, with the Morongo Basin being hit particularly hard by these activities. Sheriff Dicus was quick to differentiate legal from illegal grows, saying that the illegal grows that have sprung up in the desert are known to steal water from the community, but also attract a criminal element.
“We’re encountered automatic weapons, had officer-involved shootings, we’re finding body dumps at these things, there’s a tremendous amount of street crime associated with this.” – Sheriff Dicus
Dicus said that the county has provided his department with more money to go after illegal grows in an initiative called “Operation Hammerstrike.”
“Annually, our board of supervisors, gives us crime suppression money, we to address what are quality of life issues, like Operation Hammerstrike, we were able to increase our teams from one marijuana team to five.” – Sheriff Dicus
You can hear Sheriff Dicus’ full interview by listening to the Up-Close Show as a podcast on z1077fm.com
