A cannabis grower and former Army Green Beret has sued the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, saying deputies illegally raided his farm in late 2022 on Torres Martinez tribal land near Mecca.
Preston McCormick, the grower, said his business is located on reservation property and was licensed through the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, to whom he paid rent and taxes. Federally recognized American Indian tribes are considered sovereign nations with different regulatory frameworks applying to cannabis cultivation. The tribe did not respond to The Desert Sun’s request for comment.
McCormick is demanding at least $10 million in the case to cover the damage wreaked by about 100 county deputies and a heavily armed SWAT team destroying a crop near harvest, along with most of his agricultural infrastructure. He’s also alleging his home, which is located on the same property, was set fire to the day after the incident, resulting in more loss of personal property.
The Operation Desert Storm veteran said he was handcuffed for hours as the Dec. 7 raid unfolded and that the deputies appeared to throw a large pizza party on his property, as he found about 70 trashed pizza boxes and, strangely, several department radios after the celebration. McCormick has not been charged with any crimes and declined to comment for this story beyond what is written in his legal complaint.
McCormick’s lawyer, Gregory Morrow, wrote that his client had provided a sheriff’s department employee at the Thermal Station with proof he was legally permitted to grow cannabis on the property weeks before the raid. The complaint alleges that when tribal administrators came to the scene of the raid and later continued questioning the basis for it, Sheriff Chad Bianco’s department maintained they have legal authority to enforce local ordinances on federally-recognized Indian land.
Neither the sheriff’s department or a lawyer cited in the complaint as representing the tribe responded to The Desert Sun’s requests for comment.
The legal complaint claims the department seized a safe from a tribal office on the property containing about $300,000 cash. It’s unclear whether that money was returned, as the sheriff’s department, the tribe and McCormick would not respond to questions.
The tribe has been involved in legal cannabis cultivation for about a decade and was among the first in the Coachella Valley to do so after the U.S. Department of Justice issued legal guidelines for such operations, according to previous reporting by The Desert Sun.
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