Moses Lake man charged for illegal pot operation

MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake man was charged after a search warrant at his residence revealed he was running an unlicensed marijuana manufacturing facility.

Grant County prosecutors charged Stephen Sandberg, 58, of Moses Lake, in Grant County Superior Court with manufacture of a controlled substance.

Members of Grant County’s Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team (INET) served a search warrant on June 1 at Sandberg’s residence in the 10700 block of Grace Lane Northeast. An illegal grow operation was removed from the same property by INET back in 2012, according to court documents.

Leading up to the execution of the search warrant detectives had gathered information that Sandberg was running an illegal online marijuana business, despite having two prior felony convictions for controlled substance violations, which excluded him from being a licensed commercial marijuana producer.

“Further, to be a valid medical cooperative, the location and its participants must be registered and listed in a database, Sandberg and his property are not,” wrote a deputy.

Deputies secured the property and contacted a woman who was living in a double-wide mobile home with her 10-year-old son. Eleven jars of marijuana, two small dark jars with printed labels listing marijuana products, a functional digital scale and packaging material were found in the mobile home. The marijuana in the jars weighed 214 grams. The woman admitted to working for Sandberg for a year and processing marijuana and receiving marijuana and marijuana products in return.

In a shed on Sandberg’s property 75 marijuana plants were recovered, 30 of which were reportedly mature plants over 6 feet tall and “could be harvested at any time.”

“Also in the shed was about 10 5-gallon buckets, all were labeled with plant strain names (and) had residue of marijuana in them, five buckets had measurable amounts of marijuana in them. The marijuana was removed from those buckets, weighed and found to total over 2 pounds,” wrote a deputy.

Inside Sandberg’s residence deputies recovered a total of 15 pounds of processed marijuana, as well as marijuana by-products. Also located was a spiral notebook with handwritten time cards, payment for services and the names of people. It was determined that Sandberg was operating an unlicensed manufacturing facility and the Grant County Prosecutor's Office advised officials at the scene to seize all marijuana plants, processing material and associated equipment.