16 Heads Rolled to the Pokey in Bridgeville Weed Bust

Everyone Was Busted– Except Boris and Natasha

Skippy Massey
Humboldt Sentinel

Growers will try anything once, twice if they like it, and three times to make sure. But when they play with weed
and fire, they get burned by the greedy smoke in their eyes.

On Monday, September 10 at 9:00 am,the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office assisted by CalFire, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) served a Humboldt County Superior Court Search Warrant on a 160-acre parcel of property off State Route Highway 36 near mile marker 31.54 in Bridgeville.

When the warrant was served deputies located and detained twelve suspects located at various locations on the property.

A thirteenth suspect fled on foot as officers arrived. A chase ensued; however, the suspect was able to escape into the brush.

Officers searched greenhouses and buildings on the parcel. They located an approximate 60’ by 30’ shop with living quarters being utilized to process and dry marijuana. Hanging in the shop was approximately 375 pounds of drying harvested marijuana.

Also located at the property were four greenhouses approximately 40’ by 80’ which contained growing marijuana plants. A total of 685 growing marijuana plants from 6’ to 7’ tall, all budding and in rich fragrant bloom, were located and removed.

A semiautomatic 9 mm handgun was located in one of the suspect’s vehicles. Officers located and seized $10,422 in US currency, scales, packaging material and other items indicating sales of marijuana for profit.

The suspects claimed the marijuana cultivation site was a collective for medical marijuana and presented the officers with a stack of medical marijuana slips approximately 3” thick. It’s possible. That is, when pigs fly.

Officers also located a significant amount of environmental damage to the parcel.

Cal-Fire Officers on scene described the damage as a “Significant environmental impact due to water course alterations because of heavy equipment operations in and around and through the watercourse.”

The watercourse affected is Little Larabee Creek where officers found clear cutting of trees and illegal roads wantonly carved into the hillside.

A pump was found in Little Larabee Creek illegally removing water from the creek, which was drained dry downstream from the pump. To note, Little Larabee Creek contains Steelhead trout and the drainage is federally protected per California Department and Fish and Wildlife.

Approximately four hours into the search of the parcel, officer heard noises in the brush at a different location on the property. The suspect who had fled on foot was sighted again– and ordered to surrender.

This time, the California Fish and Wildlife wardens had a K-9 with them. After the suspect failed to stop and yield to the officer’s commands, the K-9 was unleashed and released– and lo and behold– the trusty K-9 canine caught the skunky suspect, identified as Yul Cashman.

Mr. Cashman (seriously, we didn’t make that name up) was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for dog bite wounds before being transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Pokey.

Mr. Cashman, however, was a drop in the bucket com-
pared to the number of other arrests.

The following suspects were arrested at this location and transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Slammer where they were booked on the listed charges:

Valentine Velikov Marinov, male, 37-years old from Pleasant Hill, California : charges of cultivation, possession of marijuana of for sale, armed in the commission of a felony, altering a streambed, water pollution, harvesting timber without a license, illegal harvesting timber, misuse of timber lands

Valeri Petrov Vasilev, male, 57-years old, from Las Vegas, Nevada : charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

Maja Damnjanovska, female, 27-years old from New York, New York: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale, also Immigration and Customs Hold

Dragoljub Obucina, male, 28-years old, from Astoria, New York: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale, also Immigration and Customs Hold

Boriana Eugenieva Stoyanova, female, 51-years old, from Las Vegas, Nevada: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale, also Immigration and Customs Hold

Paulina Aleksandrova Kitanova, female, 63-years old from Charlotte, North Carolina: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

Nevena Patrova Alexandrova, female, 46-years old from Charlotte, North Carolina: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

Silviya Simeonova Lazarova, female, 43-years old from Las Vegas, Nevada: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale, also Immigration and Customs Hold

Julieta Mihaleva Ivanova, female,54-years old from San Francisco, California: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale, also Immigration and Customs Hold

Tatyana Aleksandrova Pencheva, female, 59-years old from Buglaria: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

Milana Tojagic, female 31-years old from Chicago, Illinois: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale , also Immigration and Customs Hold

Tamara Srpsko Acimovia, female 33-years old, from New York, New York: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

Yul Cashman, male, 65-years old from Las Vegas: charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale and resisting arrest

While officers were searching and processing the first marijuana grow site, they located a second marijuana grow site on an adjoining parcel.

A second Humboldt County Superior Court Search warrant was obtained for that location. As if they didn’t have enough on their sticky hands to do.

When the warrant was served at approximately 1:00 pm, officers located three greenhouses on that parcel containing 1,026 growing marijuana plants ranging in size from 1’ to 5’ tall.

They also located ammunition, but no firearms, along with additional significant environmental violations. Those violations included illegal timber harvesting, allowing raw sewage to drain into Little Larabee Creek which included fecal matter, and more unpermitted roads.

Cal Fire officials who were at both locations commented that the roads cut at both sites were similar to what would have been seen during logging operations in the 1940’s. They expect both locations to have significant sediment issues from runoff once
the winter rains begin.

Located and arrested at the second location were the following suspects:

Michael Kenneth Metelits, 42-years old from Fortuna: charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale, five counts streambed alteration, four counts of polluting a waterway, littering with 150 feet of a stream, misuse of timber lands, and conducting timber harvesting without a permit.

Unfortunately Mr. Metelits is also wanted by the State of Virginia for shipping wickedly large amounts of marijuana from Fortuna to Virginia. Now what do you call that again? Two-time loser? A slow learner? Too high? Uh, just greedy.

Jaime Javier Contreras, 20-years old from Stockton, California: charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

Carlos Fuerte Cachu, 61-years old, from Stockton, California: charged with cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale

The investigation is ongoing. Heads will roll. More heads will roll after the heads that were rolled snitch off the heads that weren’t rolled yet. Stay tuned for further head rolling.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.