Statewide retail cannabis theft case ‘Operation Sticky Fingers’ lands in Santa Cruz County

LIVE OAK — Law enforcement officials on Thursday revealed details of a large-scale cannabis store theft ring that they said spanned nine counties and lasted nine months.

Santa Cruz County Undersheriff Chris Clark talks about the multi-agency effort in Operation Sticky Fingers as California Attorney General Rob Bonta listens. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel) — Santa Cruz County Undersheriff Chris Clark speaks about the interdepartmental cooperation involved in Operation Sticky Fingers as California Attorney General Rob Bonta listens. (Shmuel Thaler — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

“To be clear, we’re not talking about stealing a few packs of THC gummies,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. “Far from it. We’re talking about coordinated schemes, organized efforts that are damaging our businesses and are a threat to our communities. And that organized criminal schemes deserve and require an organized response from law enforcement. And that’s what we’ve demonstrated here.”

In an effort dubbed “Operation Sticky Fingers,” Bonta said 22 men were arrested last month in connection with 15 burglaries. Many occurred in Santa Cruz County, he said, meaning local courts will handle the legal proceedings. Last week, 14 of the co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges before Judge Nancy de la Peña.

“Instead of trying multiple cases in multiple counties, we centralized it here in Santa Cruz County,” said Bonta, who praised the collaboration of multiple law enforcement agencies and partners.

The 15 burglaries charged in the case largely occurred after hours at cannabis dispensaries, Bonta said. He estimated the value of the stolen products, which consisted of about 1,000 pounds of marijuana plants and other cannabis paraphernalia, at more than $1 million. Stolen items were not sold in bulk to a single distributor, but were sold individually, either through personal information or through online transactions on social media, according to police investigations, Bonta said.

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Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office investigator Emma Ramponi, who was cited by Undersheriff Chris Clark for her work in Operation Sticky Fingers, attends a news conference at sheriff’s headquarters on Thursday. (Shmuel Thaler — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

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Santa Cruz County establishments named in criminal records include Highway One Distribution in Santa Cruz, Catalyst Cannabis in Watsonville, Jade Coast in Watsonville, Strong Agronomy in Watsonville, 3 Bros Dispensary in Soquel and The Hook in Watsonville. Asked whether other known cannabis facility break-ins were still under investigation, Bonta said he believed the core of the case had been uncovered, but that additional charges could be added as the investigation continues. The November break-in at the Decibel Gardens cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and distribution center in Santa Cruz, which led to an alleged shootout between the owner and the assailants, was waived from the list. Store owner Derek Hubbard is awaiting a preliminary hearing next month in the case on charges of shooting into an occupied dwelling, four counts of assault with a semi-automatic rifle and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Although the shoplifting allegations occurred outside Alameda County, Oakland police played a key role in solving the case, authorities said Thursday. Bureau of Investigations Deputy Chief Frederick Shavies opened the investigation into the grand thefts in February for crimes he said occurred from mid-2023 through July.

“(We) utilized technology, both within the Oakland Police Department and with the assistance of the Attorney General’s Office and the California Department of Justice, to assist in the investigation and we discovered that the group encompassed multiple criminal street gangs within the city of Oakland and that these crimes spanned multiple jurisdictions, spanning the entire length of California,” Shavies said.

Ultimately, the thefts were narrowed down to Santa Cruz, Solano, Kern, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Merced, Fresno, Sonoma and San Diego counties, according to court filings. Local law enforcement agencies conducted preliminary investigations into their respective thefts and fed that information into the Oakland investigation, Shavies said. A combination of social media posts and surveillance video helped solve the case, he said.

The suspects in the case have been charged with varying degrees of crime, including conspiracy to commit burglary, organized retail theft, multiple counts of commercial burglary, multiple counts of grand larceny and attempted grand larceny. The alleged accomplices named are Jaedon Woods, Dante Williams, Kenneth Stanley, Alvin Lovett, Damien Hayes, Rashad Christopher, Luis Lopez, Lavarr Lewis, Anthony Bender, Andrew Keegans, Joseph Russell, Kalif Collins, Deron Harrison, Mehki Goodspeed, Amari Bailey-Waters, John Griffin, Jayson Russell, Trevon Jamerson, Derek Taylor, Antonio Gainey, Robert Lovely and Jordan Rixter. None of the suspects, authorities said, were residents of Santa Cruz County.

Bonta said that of the eight men who have not appeared in court so far, at least one co-defendant was out of state and one was in jail. Some, if not all, of the co-defendants were provided with free public defender support last week by various law firms. Bonta said out-of-state counties had been called upon to help provide the extensive legal defense needed.

Originally published: August 30, 2024 at 5:18 am