El Paso County sheriff’s deputies in the first three months of 2018 confiscated about $12 million worth of illegally grown marijuana plants, another $1 million in processed marijuana, made 16 arrests and seized more than a dozen guns under a state law designed to stop the diversion of legal pot to the drug’s black market.
The actions come under House Bills 17-1220 and 17-1221, signed in June last year to clamp down on illegal pot as well as rein in regulations that allowed for a “grey market” to prosper. The bills capped home-grows at 12 plants, down from 99, and allocated $6 million of pot tax revenue to black-market enforcement.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, deputies served 30 search warrants and conducted another 30 “knock and talks,” as well as confiscated a marijuana trimming machine worth about $10,000, in its crack-down, the department said Friday.
