Sheriff Elder promises illegal marijuana grow enforcement in El Paso County this year
With the new year comes a new emphasis for local sheriff’s offices.
El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder told KRDO NewsChannel 13 he’s turning up the heat on illegal marijuana growers.
“We’re done. We’re done,” Elder said. “We now have some restrictions in place and we’re coming after them.”
Elder said busting illegal marijuana growing operations has not been easy for his deputies.
“The problem before was when it was not a criminal violation we were not always able to secure search warrants,” Elder said.
The key is House Bill 1220 that went into effect Jan. 1, 2018 that now makes growing more than 24 plants at home for medical marijuana illegal.
While the new plant limit law helps deputies identify illegal marijuana growing operations, it now presents new challenges for the sheriff’s office.
“The next piece is manpower,” Elder said. “The commissioners allocated over $100,000 in overtime. And that will help significantly.”
Another obstacle Elder faces is what to do with what’s seized and how to hold onto evidence. He said his office is aware of more than 550 large scale growing operations in the county and said many aren’t legal.
“Most of these large-scale grows won’t be able to hide anymore,” Elder said.
Teller County following through on a similar promise as it busted a marijuana farm on Tuesday.
“We timed this with the new law that takes effect Jan. 1, 2018 whereby individuals can no longer have massive amounts of marijuana being cultivated in residences,” Cmdr. Greg Couch with the Teller County Sheriff’s Office said.
Elder believes some operations will pare down their crop but knows others won’t.
“I don’t think there’s some of these guys that are going to care and that’s okay, we’ll come knocking anyway,” Elder said.
Elder, who faces a Republican primary this coming March as he seeks his second term, believes criminal organizations are behind many of the illegal operations. He said they will often ship the product out of Colorado.
