MARIPOSA COUNTY – In the early morning hours of Wednesday Apr. 30, the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by Yosemite National Park law enforcement and other partner law enforcement agencies, served search warrants at three Mariposa County residences.
One warrant was served in the town of Mariposa, on Mariposa Street, and the other two were served within a few miles of town, one on Lookout Mountain Road and the other on Sebastopol Road.
The search warrants were a product of a lengthy criminal investigation into the illegal cultivation of marijuana and conspiracy to cultivate marijuana. During the investigation, leading up to Wednesday’s warrants, four previous search warrants targeting marijuana cultivation locations in Mariposa County had been executed.
This investigation is focused on local properties that are working together to cultivate marijuana under the Proposition 215 medicinal marijuana umbrella, however, they are doing so as what the Sheriff’s Office says is an illegal enterprise.
Four arrests were made and a total of 473 plants removed from the properties.
“I’m happy with the results of the lengthy investigation and the hard work of our detectives,” says Sheriff Doug Binnewies. “They focused on a criminal element that we do not want operating in our communities.”
