County Task Force Busts Sophisticated Hash Oil Lab, Arrests Suspect

A Santa Cruz County task force arrested a 30-year-old man last Thursday and confiscated more than $300,000 worth of marijuana after finding a sophisticated hash oil lab in Santa Cruz, a task force official said.

Last Thursday, the Santa Cruz Police Department received an anonymous tip about a drug lab in a residence in the 100 block of Fairland Way, a block north of state Highway 1 and a few blocks west of Dominican Hospital, authorities said.

The Police Department called the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team’s Narcotic Task Force, made up of law officers from multiple jurisdictions, to investigate the tip, team Cmdr.

Mario Sulay reported. At 6 p.m. that day, members of the task force contacted the resident of the house on Fairland, 30-year-old Justin Pullman, and while speaking to him, corroborated the information from the tip, Sulay said.

Agents from the task force obtained a warrant to search Pullman’s home and discovered inside a clandestine butane honey oil, or BHO, lab, where flammable gases are used to extract a concentrated oil from marijuana vegetation, Sulay reported.

The lab included sophisticated extraction equipment capable of producing large amounts of BHO, including 41 5-gallon tanks of butane gas, 96 pounds of marijuana leaves and stems, 86 pounds of marijuana buds and 5 pounds of BHO, task force agents said.

The task force estimated that with the marijuana vegetation and buds recovered from the suspect’s home, the lab could have yielded 30 pounds of the honey oil with a street value of more than $300,000.

Agents arrested Pullman on suspicion of manufacturing BHO and possessing concentrated marijuana for sale, according to Sulay.

--Bay City News