https://www.siliconvalley.com/2024/10/14/early-santa-cruz-plea-deals-net-3-month-jail-sentences-in-statewide-cannabis-retail-theft-ring/

SANTA CRUZ — A fraction of the two dozen men implicated in a statewide cannabis dispensary crime ring concentrated in Santa Cruz County pleaded guilty last week to charges.

The state Attorney General’s Office-dubbed case “Operation Sticky Fingers,” announced at an August press conference in Live Oak, charged 24 people over nine counties during nine months. The 15 break-ins charged involved mob-style after-hours thefts of about 1,000 pounds of marijuana plants and other cannabis retail items valued at more than $1 million, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. Details of the case began emerging in mid-August, even as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills establishing tougher punishments for smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes.