Report on illegal grow operations highlights Antioch home linked to OPD officer

An Oakland police officer is on administrative leave after a home he owned was raided by the state’s Department of Cannabis Control earlier this year, one of at least 58 raids the agency has done in Antioch since the agency was formed in 2021, according to a new report.

The investigation by CNN into illegal cannabis grow operations nationwide focused on the case of Oakland police Officer Samson Liu, who was the owner of one of the homes highlighted in the story at the time of the raid. The home was put on the market in July, according to a listing on Zillow, and a sale is currently pending.

No one was arrested in relation to the raid, not an uncommon outcome after such raids in California, which has in recent years taken a less carceral approach to illegal cannabis. Oakland police officials told CNN that the officer was placed on administrative leave following the raid, which took place in April of this year, but authorities would not clarify if he was living in or renting the home at the time of the raid.

Roughly two months later, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office decided not to file criminal charges against Liu in connection with the grow operation, authorities said.

CNN reported that law enforcement agents seized 80 pounds of illegal cannabis found in the home, and that the home had been modified drastically for the purpose of cannabis cultivation, including the installation of a generator and extensive ventilation. Two other homes on that street were raided on the same day, with $1 million of illegal product seized from the three locations.

According to data from the Department of Cannabis Control and published by the news network, the only city in the state that has had more raids than Antioch is Los Angeles, a city with over 30 times the population of the Contra Costa County suburb. Los Angeles had 89 raids during the same time period, compared to 58 in the inland city of 115,000 residents.

The city has developed a reputation among the state’s pot cops as a hotbed of illegal grow houses, according to the investigation. Bill Jones, chief of law enforcement at the California Department of Cannabis Control, told CNN some operations they have raided in Antioch show signs similar to others linked to “the Chinese criminal syndicate,” and said the presence of those forces have eclipsed that of the Mexican cartels in recent years in California’s black market.

Liu made $105,000 in regular pay, and an additional $102,000 in overtime in 2022, according to Transparent California, a database of public employee pay. In 2023, Liu was reported to have made $137,000 in regular pay and $158,000 in overtime.