845 MARIJUANA PLANTS SEIZED

A total of 845 indoor grown marijuana plants and records of the sale
of marijuana were seized from Steven Lance Berry's LANKASH Caregivers
Clinic Tuesday morning, according to Sgt. Rusty Noe, County of
Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team commander.

The indoor cultivation operation consisted of four indoor grow rooms
and an office. During the raid, people were approaching the location
and attempting to buy marijuana and marijuana plants while officers
were conducting the search, Noe stated in a press release.

Seized at a Masonite Road residence were records and marijuana, along
with a loaded shotgun, Noe said.

The case was started when COMMET and the Mendocino County Major Crimes
Task Force received information that marijuana was being sold and
transported out of the county by the owner of the LANKASH club. During
the investigation, agents allegedly purchased $4,500 worth of cloned
marijuana plants from Berry. Later, agents allegedly arranged to
purchase several pounds of bud marijuana from Berry with an agreement
to purchase up to 100 pounds of marijuana at a later date, Noe said.

During the purchase of two pounds of marijuana, Mendocino County
sheriff's deputies arrested Berry on suspicion of domestic violence
and the deal was never completed, Noe said.

Berry was arrested Tuesday evening on suspicion of cultivation of
marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale, and booked into jail
on $25,000 bail.

"This is an example of the misuse of the medical marijuana laws by
subjects who are profiting from marijuana sales. The current laws are
conflicting on what a marijuana caregiver can do and how much
compensation can be received. In this case, agents purchased marijuana
with medical marijuana never being mentioned and it is clearly a
trafficking situation," Noe said. "We will investigate and attempt to
prosecute anyone who is using the medical marijuana laws to profit
from the cultivation and sales of marijuana," he added.

Berry, who posted bail, on Wednesday told The Daily Journal agents
told him they came in because "they pulled over two people from
Montana who claimed they bought clones from my place -- Steven Berry's
Caregivers Service,' previously known as LANKASH," Berry said.

"I have not profited a single dime and I can prove that. When I came
into the Ukiah area, I had a medical settlement and had money and I am
now beyond broke," Berry said, adding that agents may have found
records of the money for issuance,' but not for sales. "It is legal to
issue it out at a caregiving cost. You get paid for the work you do,"
he said.

The only reason he had a loaded shotgun, he said, was because his home
had been robbed recently and a friend staying there felt unsafe, so he
brought a gun into the house, and left it with Berry.

Berry contested the number of plants Noe said were found, and said he
has never sold marijuana to an agent.

"If it was purchased it wasn't purchased directly from me, but could
have been purchased from somebody who was working at the facility," he
said. "In the two-and-a-half years I have run the facility, I have had
to let go of almost every person who worked there or volunteered there
because of suspicions of them doing illegal activities," he said.

Berry said he never entered into an agreement that someone would
purchase 100 pounds of marijuana.

"They were trying to see if I would set up 100 pounds, which made it
only obvious the man was a cop because patients don't come in asking
for 100 pounds," he said.

"We have always hoped that we would turn a profit with the place, but
because of six different robberies that have occurred from evidently
professional thieves, there has been absolutely no profit made from
this. The whole deal was not for profit anyway, it was to help
people," Berry said.