Owner of Sophisticated ‘Pot’ Farm Convicted
- Share via
A Palmdale contractor faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for financing a sophisticated underground marijuana farm that was raided in the Antelope Valley last year, the U.S. attorney’s office said Friday.
After deliberating three hours, a federal court jury in Los Angeles on Thursday found Richard E. Yerger, 61, guilty of conspiracy to possess marijuana and possession with intent to distribute the drug.
Yerger, who remained in custody without bail, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30. Federal officials said Yerger’s farm in Llano, a tiny community east of Palmdale, could have produced more than $35 million worth of marijuana annually. But it was raided Nov. 16, before the first harvest.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
The latest effort is coming from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. They just announced a $3 million program in conjunction with some nonprofits groups to test and clean the soil at homes still standing in the areas impacted by the Eaton Fire.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Dr. Vanessa J. Díaz, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
