Honey oil lab investigation leads to massive seizure of marijuana plants

Siskiyou County, Calif. — New information about a huge butane honey oil lab in rural Siskiyou County. The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office describes it as one of the largest in the state of California. It was discovered by firefighters battling a wild land fire nearby. Now, we’re learning just how close those flames came to the drug lab, and why police say the investigation is far from over.

“Firefighters were working right here not knowing that, this bomb was waiting right there in this house,” Sergeant Mike Gilley of the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office explains.

That bomb, a massive butane honey oil extraction lab, just feet from where firefighters battled flames.

“They said you’d probably feel the blast within a mile, it would have leveled everything here,” Sgt. Gilley says.

It was a tip from those fire crews that led the sheriff’s office to come investigate. What they found inside this home, was shocking.

“Overwhelmed by what I saw the significance of how big it was the chemicals involved I knew this was probably a very high risk operation going on.”

Crews spent over 20 hours disassembling the extraction lab. They say the dozens of containers of butane being used, ranged in size from 150 gallons to 5.

“We’re still working on it, we’re far from over, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

On Thursday, that work continued, as the department seized more than a hundred plants believed to be connected to the lab. So far one man has been arrested, but police say they have reason to believe more arrests, and more charges are likely.

“It does not look like a one man show,” Sgt. Gilley says.

The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office says deputies also recovered a large amount of processed marijuana at the suspect’s home in Weed.