KELSEYVILLE — A compliance check made by members of the Lake County Sheriff”s Marijuana Suppression Unit at a Kelseyville residence Wednesday resulted in a total of 15 arrests for marijuana and other related charges.
According to Captain Jim Bauman, during a presentation by sheriff”s detectives on medicinal marijuana grows at the Buckingham Homeowners” Association last week, detectives were informed by one of the members of a possible grow at a residence on Eastlake Drive. “The marijuana unit had previously detected a relatively small grow at the Eastlake Drive location during an over-flight and already had the site listed as a pending compliance check,” Bauman said.
According to Bauman, at about 10:50 a.m. detectives went to the residence to check the grow for compliance. Bauman said after detecting an obvious odor of processed marijuana in the area and getting no answer at the door, detectives went to the back door of the garage where they heard voices and were greeted by a male adult, identified as Hormisdas Camacho Chino, 36, of Clearlake. Detectives located two more men in the garage who were allegedly in the process of packaging more than 200 pounds of processed marijuana. The men were identified as Bernardo Rivera Corona, 24, of Santa Rosa; and Filiberto Camacho Lopez, 23, of Clearlake.
“While the three men in the garage were detained, detectives checked the grow they had previously identified from the air, located about 25 yards behind the residence,” Bauman said. “A total of 11 more male adults were found in the small grow in the process of cultivation and were immediately detained.”
Bauman said the grow consisted of about 30 standing plants but appeared to have hosted about 50 plants originally.
“Additional patrol resources were called to the scene to assist with arrests while a search warrant was obtained for the premises. As arrests were being made, the owner of the home 60 year old Benjamin Bizon, drove up and was detained,” Bauman said. “Bizon had two medical marijuana cards but apparently could not account for the excessive amount of processed marijuana found on the property.”
According to Bauman, service of the search warrant later yielded a total of 408 pounds of processed marijuana, 820 pounds of unprocessed marijuana plants and numerous items of evidence of cultivation and sales of marijuana. Bauman said among backpacks, tents and other camping debris, a 9mm semi-automatic handgun that was reported stolen out of San Diego was also recovered from the grow site.
“It is believed the Eastlake Drive property was used to package processed marijuana from other gardens since the small grow found on the property could not have produced the amount of marijuana recovered from the site,” Bauman said.
All 15 men arrested at the property were booked into Lake County Jail. Bauman said the Bizon, the homeowner, was booked on felony charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sales. In addition to the three arrested out of the garage, the following men arrested out of the adjacent garden were booked on felony charges of cultivating marijuana, commission of a felony while armed and receiving stolen property. Bauman said nine of the 15 arrests had immigration holds placed on them.
Additional arrests include that of Mario Alberto Flores, 29, of Santa Rosa; Humberto Luna Ortiz, 24, of Kelseyville; Marcellino Reyes Perez, 57, of Santa Rosa; Eduardo Mejia Alvarez, 46, of Kelseyville; Ariel Flores Santos, 40, of Santa Rosa; Adlo Figueroa Camacho, 25, of Santa Rosa; Carlos Nunez, 18, of Santa Rosa; Isaias Camacho Chino, 56, of Santa Rosa; Sabas Ramirez Medina, 41, of Santa Rosa; Jorge Lopez Vasquez, 20, of Lower Lake; and Elisandro Nunez Camacho, 18, of Santa Rosa.
