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Illegal cannabis growers are stealing water amid California’s drought, officials say

California’s deepening drought is creating another big problem for authorities: water theft.

Water thieves, many of them illegal marijuana growers, are tapping into fire hydrants and drilling unauthorized water wells, according to officials, threatening the water supply for residents.

In a recent sting in Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County, federal, state and local law enforcement officers disrupted hundreds of allegedly illegal marijuana cultivations in the area.

They arrested 131 people and seized 65 vehicles, including two water trucks. Authorities recovered $28,000, 33,480 pounds of marijuana and dozens of firearms. Nineteen people were charged with water theft.

“Most Californians would be shocked and disappointed at the amount of water these unlicensed, illegal grows are using, especially as California suffers from a drought,” Curt Fallin, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s associate special agent in charge, said in a news release as officials unveiled the operation on July 7. “By our calculation, the illegal grows in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties require an astounding 5.4 million gallons of water a day, every day,” Fallin said.

The alleged water thefts come as much of the western half of the United States is in the midst of a severe drought. The extreme dry spell is especially bad in California and the Southwest, but it also stretches into the Pacific Northwest, much of the Intermountain West and even the Northern Plains. [Read More @ The Washington Post]

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