Drug agents displayed their loot at the Santa Clara Police Department: 22 pounds of marijuana, nine firearms 26 high-capacity magazines for assault weapons and 23 marijuana plants.
The agents completed a sting late Thursday night of companies that advertise on the Internet and in magazines as legitimate medicinal marijuana distributors. But agents say they were nothing more than drug dealers.
"Nine of the times, they sold to a second undercover agent that didn't have a doctor's note or anything, sometimes not even an I.D.," said Bob Cooke, Special Agent in Charge of for the state Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.
"The mere listing might not be illegal," said Santa Clara Police Chief Stephen Lodge. "The delivery is illegal for their own profit. Bringing marijuana to someone they never met before, that clearly doesn't fit the definition of a caregiver."
Undercover agents spent Thursday responding to ads and luring delivery companies to homes that served as decoys. Police say the delivery companies hide under the guise of proposition 215 to sell their pot illegally.
"I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg of people who are hiding behind the voter approved concept of medicinal marijuana to sell illegal drugs on an unprecedented scale," said Lodge.
Almost every police department in Santa Clara County participated in the sting.
