Menlo Park PD, FBI SWAT Team Up, Make Honey Oil Lab Bust: Police

MENLO PARK, CA — Menlo Park police and other law enforcement agencies executed a search warrant Thursday in Stockton and arrested a man on suspicion of numerous offenses including identity theft, police said.

Early in the morning, police investigators along with an FBI SWAT team, San Joaquin sheriff's deputies and investigators with the Regional Enforcement Allied Computer Team executed the warrant and arrested 38-year-old Stockton man Robert Watson II.

Watson was sought by Menlo Park police for alleged offenses related to identity theft, counterfeiting and forgery.

Police and deputies searched Watson's home where they allegedly found a "honey oil" lab inside a garage. Police said honey oil is also known as "hash oil," which is created when someone uses butane to extract tetrahydrocannabinol from marijuana. Tetrahydrocannabinol creates the euphoric high when some uses marijuana.

Police also allege they found a stockpile of ammunition as well as items used to make improvised destructive devices.

The FBI and a bomb squad responded and neighboring homes were evacuated while the items were investigated and collected by the bomb squad. Police did not say anyone was injured.

Watson was booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on the Menlo Park warrant as well as alleged offenses including possessing materials to make a destructive device, possessing dangerous fireworks without a permit, possessing a destructive device in a home, manufacturing a controlled substance by chemical extraction or synthesis and possessing ammunition by someone who's prohibited from doing so.

The Menlo Park warrant was for $600,000.

Police are asking anyone who may have information about the case to call Detective Sgt. Ed Soares at (650) 330-6360, Detective Steve Knopp at (650) 330-6364 or the anonymous tip line at (650) 330-6395.

— By Bay City News Service / Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone