An Oakland police officer was placed on leave back in April after a large, illicit cannabis grow was discovered inside his Antioch home, a CNN investigation has found.
Over 80 pounds of weed, worth more $1 million, was removed from Officer Samson Liu’s property. According to CNN, Liu’s home had fortified doors and boarded-up windows along with a heavy-duty generator and industrial air ducts for ventilation.
Antioch has been a hotspot for illegal marijuana cultivation. Kevin McInerney with the California Department of Cannabis Control estimates that 100 to 200 homes in Antioch are marijuana grow sites. These operations are highly dangerous, employing illegal pesticides and electrical setups that increase fire risk.
Almost all of the grows in Antioch that have been raided are run by Chinese nationals involved in organized crime, McInerney added.
The business is lucrative, in part because the penalties of being caught are so low. California does not warrant felony charges for illegal cultivation except in certain circumstances; most infractions are misdemeanors. Since 2022, sixty raids have been conducted in Antioch, resulting in massive amounts of marijuana being seized. Yet only two people associated with those raids have been arrested and charged.
As for the raid on Officer Liu’s home, the Oakland Police Department says it is cooperating with outside agencies in the investigation. No arrests were made in connection with the grow at Liu’s home either, according to CNN.