Last week’s murders of six men at a remote desert intersection, which authorities believe was the result of a worsening illegal marijuana trade, are part of a longstanding problem in California that hopes to eradicate. It focused on the underground marijuana market, which is booming despite years of legal sales.
The killings served as a tragic reminder of the violence that accompanies illegal cannabis activities, including unlicensed cannabis cultivation operations, reckless robberies of legal businesses, and clandestine illegal shipments to out-of-state businesses.
“The violence is escalating. The stakes are getting higher and higher,” said dispensary owner Jared Kilo, who is also president of the National Cannabis Business Association, a Los Angeles-based trade group.
Many of the group’s members say they have seen their pharmacies robbed multiple times, sometimes by the same robbers.
“We keep talking about what the issues are,” Kilo said. “But we haven’t done anything about it.”
Authorities discovered the body on January 23 in the Mojave Desert outside the sparsely populated community of El Mirage.
Five suspects have been arrested and each face multiple charges, including six counts of felony murder.
Two have pleaded not guilty, but arraignments are scheduled for the remaining three. They were held without bail.
The area where the bodies were found is located about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles and is known for its illegal marijuana trade.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus lamented, “This is an issue that isn’t talked about a lot,” and amended cannabis laws to “maintain legalization but return to stiffer penalties for illegal users.” He called on lawmakers to do so.
The murders come as California’s heavily regulated legal cannabis industry continues to struggle, with underground businesses sometimes operating in secret.
California has long been the nation’s largest producer of cannabis, prized for its aromatic and powerful cannabis buds. Voters in 2016 approved Proposition 64, which legalized and taxed the multibillion-dollar industry, boldly stating that widespread legal sales would “neutralize the black market.”
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was lieutenant governor at the time, called the law a “game changer.”
Legal adult sales faced challenges from the beginning. The state’s illicit market has thrived for decades, based in the state’s famed Emerald Triangle region in the north. Since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, no attempt had been made to rebuild such a vast illegal economy into a legal one.
Most consumers continue to purchase cannabis on the illicit market, avoiding taxes that can reach 50% in some areas.
Many cities in California have not established legal marijuana markets or prohibited commercial marijuana activities. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have not kept up with the growth and expansion of illegal sales.
Proposition 64 would lower the potential criminal penalties for growing and selling marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and six months in jail. There are no active proposals to strengthen criminal penalties in Congress this year.
Dikas said that in 2023, the department executed 411 search warrants for illegal marijuana cultivation sites across the county and recovered $370 million.
Law enforcement officials discovered 655,000 plants, 74,000 pounds of processed marijuana, and 14 laboratories producing honey oil, a potent cannabis concentrate. He said 11 search warrants were served directly at the desert site of the murder.
“The reality, as written in the fine print, is that Prop. 64 moved illegal marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor. It depends on what you are doing,” Dikas said at a press conference on Monday.
Cannabis lawyer Griffen Thorne said that in 2023, state investigators issued 24 search warrants for illegal activity between October and December, or 188 cases in a year, but there is a huge underground market that dwarfs the legal market. He pointed out that it was too small to cause confusion.
He said violence was a predictable outcome of illegal activity and “will continue to occur as long as states allow illegal markets to expand uncontrollably.”
A bill just passed by the state Senate aims to expand the authority of state and local agencies to seize property and equipment associated with illegal cultivation.
The desert murders were not the first incidents related to cannabis disputes.
In 2020, seven people were shot and killed during an illegal marijuana grow operation in a rural town in neighboring Riverside County. More than 20 people lived on the premises, including several temporary housing used for the production of honey oil.
Although marijuana remains a federally controlled substance, 38 states have legalized medical marijuana and 24 states have legalized widespread adult-use sales.
Kiloh and other industry experts predict the problem will worsen as unprofitable legitimate operators exit the industry.
Big cannabis companies have previously warned that the state’s legal industry could collapse without tax cuts and increased retail sales.
“I think this is tragic and a direct reflection of what this industry and this government has been doing,” Kilo said. “We brought organized crime back to California and encouraged it to compete for illegal markets.”
