The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday dismantled an illegal butane honey oil lab in Boulder Creek containing more than $2 million of cannabis concentrate.
Deputies found the lab inside a specially built outbuilding on the 600 block of Hartman Creek Road, according to a press release. Inside, they found 28 large volatile butane canisters, 1,759 pounds of cannabis plant material, and 136 pounds of cannabis concentrate.
Christopher Akers, 34, of Oregon, and Michael Akers, 43, of Washington, were arrested and booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail.
Santa Cruz County Environmental Health mitigated the hazards on site and coordinated site cleanup and remediation. The highly-flammable butane hash oil lab was located in rural Boulder Creek and posed a significant safety risk to residents in the area.
Butane hash oil is a cannabis concentrate that is produced through extraction of cannabinoids and terpenes from cannabis by using butane, heat and pressure. Since butane is a highly-flammable gas, the extraction process is dangerous and non-regulated BHO labs pose a significant risk to public safety.
