‘Forced labor’ is widespread on illegal cannabis plantations

HUMBOLDT – The Humboldt County Sheriff says illegal cannabis cultivation is rampant in Northern California among employees and is being addressed with new, grant-funded staff.

At the August 27 Board of Supervisors meeting, three new positions at the Sheriff’s Office were approved.

Sheriff Billy Honsal said Humboldt’s enforcement of illegal cannabis is effective, but that “bad actors” have migrated to other parts of the state or into nearby counties.

Humboldt is part of a coalition of five provinces in a region where illegal cannabis production has “increased exponentially,” Honsal said.

The counties have joined together in a nonprofit organization, the Northern California Coalition to Safeguard Communities, to address cannabis issues that members cannot handle on their own.

The coalition’s goal is “to seek funding for a collective goal, to eliminate or at least address – I shouldn’t say eliminate, because that will never happen – human trafficking and labor trafficking linked to illicit cannabis operations, transnational crime, organized crime and environmental damage,” Honsal said.

The three positions paid for with Humboldt’s $334,600 grant over three years are a public information officer, an evidence expert and a program manager.

They support the fight against human trafficking.

According to Honsal, cannabis prices have fallen sharply and with less money circulating, cost cutting is leading to exploitation of workers.

Before legalization, cannabis sold for $3,000 to $5,000 a pound, but now the price has dropped to $300 to $500, Honsal said, with labor costs “now the biggest burden.”

Honsal added: “So how do you combat that? You combat that by forcing labor.”

He said the goal is to advocate for victims, not enforce immigration laws.

“As for people who have entered the country illegally, that is not the focus of the coalition — immigration enforcement is not something that a state or county employee can ever do … and we do not engage Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct immigration enforcement.”

Obtaining evidence through ‘software extraction’ from electronic devices such as mobile phones is also part of law enforcement.

Honsal stressed that electronic evidence will be collected under “strict conditions,” including search warrants.

Supervisors supported the proposal, but Supervisor Natalie Arroyo is concerned that the grant-funded positions are temporary.

She therefore voted against approving the positions.

But she was the only one who voted against and the positions were approved.