Brothers Arrested After Hash Oil Lab, Pot Grow Found In 2 Homes Near Santa Rosa Junior College

Santa Rosa police arrested two brothers this week on suspicion of growing marijuana and producing large quantities of hash oil that they sold outside California, a police sergeant said.

Abraham Gutierrez, 27, and Alexander Gutierrez, 22, were arrested on drug and weapons charges Wednesday after police searched two residences in the 1500 block of Cavendish Avenue near state Highway 12 in southwest Santa Rosa and the 400 block of Beaver Street near the Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhood near downtown, Sgt. John Cregan said.

Detectives developed evidence that Norteno gang affiliates living at the residences were involved in manufacturing large quantities of hash, Cregan said. Detectives found a large hash oil lab with a commercial drying unit and multiple sheets of hash oil drying in the bedroom of the Cavendish Avenue residence, Cregan said.

Additional pre-packaged sheets of hash oil were ready to be distributed, and several hundred used canisters of butane gas and dozens of unused canisters were found in the residence, Cregan said.

An indoor marijuana grow with more than 300 plants, over a pound of processed marijuana, a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and 600 rounds of ammunition also were found in the bedroom, Cregan said.

Police said Abraham Gutierrez’s six-year-old son was at the residence in plain view of the drug operation, which posed a threat to the boy’s safety.

Gutierrez, who has a prior felony robbery conviction and is prohibited from owning firearms, also was arrested for child endangerment. Detectives found 11 pounds of processed marijuana and two handguns, one of them stolen from Arizona, and $17,000 in cash at the Beaver Street residence, Cregan said.

The evidence indicated the brothers were mailing the hash and marijuana outside California, Cregan said. The lucrative illegal shipping practice could be worth thousands of dollars in profit, Cregan said.

The brothers were booked in the Sonoma County Jail, but both posted bail and were released.

--Bay City News

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