Five people from the Central Valley are currently facing felony charges after the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office busted a large growing operation at the former Riverbend Rice Mill, just outside the Colusa City limits.
According to Sgt. Arnold Navarro, the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office Specialized Operations and Response Team, with assistance from the San Joaquin County Task Force, served a search warrant at the location of the large-scale illegal indoor marijuana grow around 7 AM on April 21, which led to the seizure of 4,832 mature marijuana plants.
“The illegal operation had been taking place for several months,” Navarro said, in a news release.
Investigators believe the illegal operation at the former mill, located in the 200 block of East Main Street, is connected to others in the San Joaquin area, and it was the San Joaquin County Task Force who notified the Sheriff’s Office after making the connection to a Colusa operation.
Colusa residents have complained of strong marijuana odor in the downtown, but Colusa has three legal cultivators in the same area. The rice mill shut down in 2018.
The Sheriff’s Office arrested Bo Sen Tan, 45, of San Leandro, and Zhui Gou Hiu, 43, from Brooklyn, NY, along with Guo Ming Zhang, 56, Hong Pin Zhen, 52, and Xin Shi Yu, 45, whose addresses are unknown, on suspicion of felony cultivation and conspiracy to commit a crime. All five were booked into the Colusa County Jail with no bail set.
The investigation is still ongoing. If anyone has information regarding the illegal marijuana operation, they are asked to contact Sgt. Navarro at (530) 458-0200. ■