Los Angeles – There are thousands of illegal marijuana fields across the country.
But when the federal government decided to stage one of his biggest raids since President Donald Trump took over in January, he chose the biggest legal producer in California.
About two weeks later, the cause of federal raids on two glass house farm sites in the north -west of Los Angeles is not clear and speculated. Some people say that the raid was aimed at sending a chilling message illegally to the immigrants in the US – but also rating the state’s legal cannabis industry.
Meanwhile, the Republican Trump administration is quarreling with heavy democratic California for everything from high-speed rail construction to relief from wildfire, so it is possible that the glass house was pulled into a broader conflict between the White House and Sacramento.
Political advisor Adam Spiker said, “There are many other places they can go to find illegal workers.” “Many people believe that there is a sign of politics. It is a federal enforcement that is coming to California to go after canbis.”
On July 10, US immigration and customs enforcement and border petrol agents carried out a search warrant for glass house fields in Carpinteria and Camerilo, court filing show.
On the Camerillo site, armored vehicles blocked the road, which is rolled with fields and greenhouses, as masked agents have been deployed on property. A farmwork that fell from a greenhouse roof, while later died of injuries to run to hide.
Outside the farm, the authorities faced the protesters and removed the tear gas to disperse them, a federal agent wrote in the filing in the court. According to the agent, a protestor threw a gas canister back at the border petrol authorities. Another protestor, who is sought by the FBI, appeared on fire to a gun.
More than 360 people were arrested, the most suspected of living in the country without legal status. Those arrested included four American citizens, including US Army veteran George Rit, 25, who serve as a security guard and were held for three days.
The operation came for more than a month in an extended crack in Southern California which was originally concentrated in Los Angeles, where local authorities say federal action is spreading fear in immigrant communities.
No canbis was seized and criminal search warrants used to enter farm sites are under the court seal. The authorities refused to share him with an associated press.
The government said that business was being investigated for potential child labor, human trafficking and other abuses. Agents found 14 children at one site. No information has been released about minors.
The company has not been charged.
Federal and state laws allow children to work in agriculture under certain conditions, although no one under 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry.
Company officials did not respond to the call or email. In a brief statement by the social platform X, the Glass House said it complies with immigration and naturalization warrants and “ever violated the practices of deliberately applied to work and never employed minors.”
After the raid, United Farm Workers-The biggest farm worker Union-Union-Posted an essential message for its social media accounts, as the marijuana is illegal under the federal law, who are not American citizens, they should avoid jobs in the cannabis industry, including facilities obtained by state-licenses.
“We know it is inappropriate,” it said, “but we encourage you to protect yourself and your family.”
Experts in the industry points to the unwanted publicity to the company received after rival rival catalyst Canbis Company, which was filed in 2023, alleging that the Glass House “became one of the eldest, if California is not the largest, black explorer of the cannabis in the state of California.” The suit filed by Catelist Parent 562 Discount Made Ink was rejected last year, but the headlines could draw the interests of the federal investigators in the headlines.
The company was co-established by Kyle Kazan, a former southern California police officer and special education teacher, and Santa Barbara Tech entrepreneur Graham Farrar.
The Glass House began to grow canbis at a greenhouse in Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County, once the chopped flower operation was being reduced. It later bought assets at $ 93 million in Camerilo in the neighboring Ventura County, which had six greenhouses and used to grow tomatoes and cucumbers.
To date, two greenhouses have been converted to grow cannabis. Workers’ relatives said that tomatoes are still being grown in other greenhouses at the location.
The raid has put a spotlight on a company that has been alternatively praised and modified due to meteorite growth in the country’s largest legal market.
Glass House is the largest legal cultivator in the state, dwarfing its nearest rivals. Glass House Farm is part of the wider company Glass House brands, with other businesses that make canbis products.
“There is no farmer in California who can compete with them on a scale,” said Sam Rodriguez, a cannabis advisor in Sacramento.
Many legal operators fought despite the passage of proposal 64 in 2016-which was seen as a watershed moment in California’s multibibilian-dollars Marijuana industry to legitimize and tax. In 2018, when retail outlets could open, California became the largest legal market in the world.
But the operators faced heavy taxes, the seven-condensed start-up costs and for many consumers, the tax-free illegal market was a better deal.
But as other companies turned, the glass house flew, promoted jealousy and doubt by rivals at one time when most of the legal markets of the state were in crisis, due to competition from a strong underground market.
In a recent call with investors, Kazan said that the company’s revenue in the first quarter had increased by 49% in the same period last year. He said that he was hopeful of a federal change, which would end the classification of marijuana as a schedule with heroin and LSD.
“We are a company that does not require federal globalization to survive,” Kazan said.
Glass house sales increased, as many others declined across the state.
He said, “I am stable in the belief that it is not, but when the Cannabis industry becomes the next huge generalized industry of the US, and I am excited to participate in this reward with investors that will bring changes,” he said.
