Crime & Public Safety Reporter
Ray Petrovic spent eight years on the crime beat at newspapers in Fresno and Redding before moving to Humboldt County, where the line between legal agriculture and criminal enterprise is a daily editorial question. He has ridden along on CAMP helicopter raids, attended DCC enforcement hearings, and interviewed both licensed cultivators who lost everything to compliance costs and illegal operators who have no intention of going legal. At California Bud, Ray covers illegal grow site eradications, cartel operations on public lands, compliance enforcement, and public safety across Humboldt County. He reports without moralizing. The legal-illegal tension is the most complex story in the region, and Ray treats it with the nuance it demands.
Two men were arrested Friday after Humboldt County deputies executing a search warrant discovered approximately 8,000 cannabis plants in a large-scale indoor grow operation near Alderpoint.
A multi-agency CAMP operation removed approximately 12,000 cannabis plants and 4 tons of infrastructure from an illegal grow site deep in the Six Rivers National Forest west of Willow Creek.
Eureka Police are searching for a suspect who robbed a Broadway gas station at knifepoint Saturday evening, the third commercial robbery in the city this quarter.
CHP officers seized approximately 42,000 fentanyl pills during a traffic stop on Highway 101 near Garberville, the largest single fentanyl seizure in Humboldt County history.
Arcata police arrested two juveniles Wednesday in connection with at least 11 catalytic converter thefts across three neighborhoods over the past six weeks.
A multi-agency CAMP operation seized more than 5,400 cannabis plants from three properties along Mattole Road in southern Humboldt on Thursday.
Humboldt County deputies and DCC investigators discovered approximately 2,100 cannabis plants in a commercial warehouse south of Garberville on Monday.