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A Northern California sheriff is responding to accusations from a Native American tribe, which claimed he exceeded his powers during raids on cannabis farms situated on tribal land last year. The sheriff raised concerns about drug cartel groups gaining a foothold in the region.
Mendocino County Sheriff Matthew Kendall informed Fox News Digital that his office has been contacted by tribal members pleading for help to tackle illegal cannabis farms and address crime on the reservation. Kendall noted that the majority of the raids his office conducted were not on tribal grounds.
“They’re asking for assistance, saying, ‘Please, we hear gunshots all night, all around our community,'” he stated. “These individuals include both tribal and non-tribal members. I am responsible for safeguarding these people and upholding the law. However, when I carry out search warrants and related activities, I end up facing lawsuits.”
“It’s a very depressed economy, and it’s kind of ripe for picking for bad things to come in,” he said of the cartels. “We’ve had a lot of shootings up there, a lot of violence up there. It’s not OK, the things that are going on.”
“He has a duty to enforce criminal law on the reservation,” David Dehnert, another attorney for the plaintiffs, told Fox News Digital. “He has no authority to enforce California regulatory law on the reservation, which is what they were doing.”
Dehnert said the tribe has its own marijuana law and that Kendall was aware of it before conducting the raids. He said he sent Kendall a cease-and-desist letter after the raids.
Marston said Kendall was out of his jurisdiction and that what his office did was the same as enforcing California laws in Nevada.
This view of Mendocino County shows multiple marijuana grow houses in the area, according to Sheriff Matthew Kendall. (Google Maps)
“He knew that the tribe had enacted a tribal law prohibiting the possession, sale and cultivation of cannabis, except for medical purposes,” Marston said.
The raids were conducted in July 2024, with the plaintiffs accusing deputies of leaving homes and gardens in shambles.
James, a grandmother who suffers from arthritis and a degenerative disc disorder, makes her own medicinal cream with the cannabis she cultivates to ease the daily pain due to her disorder, the lawsuit said. She had two structures on her trust allotment where she grew cannabis plants, which were destroyed by a tractor by pushing the soil and all the plants and improvements into a pile of dirt and rubbish, the suit alleged.
At Swearinger’s home, sheriff’s deputies showed up and destroyed her vegetable garden and tore out her plants, her attorneys said. Her grandchildren were present and watched as heavily armed officers stood guard, the lawsuit said.
Swearinger had a license to grow 10 plants on her property, Marston said.
Britton, a rancher, alleged that deputies destroyed cannabis plants, cultivation structures and equipment, fencing and an electric gate on his property.
In all three raids, authorities failed to produce a valid search warrant, the lawsuit said.
The Round Valley Indian Tribes did not return a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Kendall said he has a duty to drive protection in the county and pushed back on the notion that the raids had a racial component.
“That is a load of bull—-,” he said. “I’m not putting up with that. That is a flat-out lie.”
He noted that he grew up in the Round Valley area of Mendocino County and did not personally decide which properties were raided, only that they targeted the “biggest and the baddest” grow sites.
