According to a press release from Oregon State Police, July 6, the Southwest Region Drug Enforcement Section team served an illegal marijuana search warrant in the 300 block of Gene Brown Road in O’Brien.
The Gene Brown Rd property is owned by 450 Brown Road LLC whose registered agent is Reginald James Boltz, the owner and operator of Rock’N R Ranch and Augustino Estate with a vineyard and tasting room in O’Brien.
The press release also stated that 3,547 illegal marijuana plants were located in five large greenhouses, which were seized, and ultimately destroyed. Additionally, the property is subject to multiple code violations through Josephine County Code Enforcement, for unpermitted structures (greenhouses), unpermitted water tanks, unpermitted electrical installations, and illegal water diversion from a nearby waterway.
But Boltz claims it’s not so. In a telephone conversation Boltz denied the structures and tanks were unpermitted.
“We have too much to lose if we don’t do things right,” he said.
Boltz said he leased the land to a group out of Jackson County and they were the ones that grew marijuana and not the hemp that they were licensed to. “The greenhouses were not torn down, they only took the illegal plants, and I have water rights” Boltz added.
According to Josephine County property assessment & tax data the more than 29-acre property was acquired by Boltz in 2021 when he purchased it from John Hancock Life Insurance for $37,000. Hancock acquired the land from Indian Hill LLC in 2017 as part of a deal for $46,996,530 for its timber resources.
As a result, Josephine County will move forward with enforcement action against the property owner which could result in closure of the property for one calendar year (illegal drug cultivation) and possible civil forfeiture.
The investigation is on-going and no further information is available at this time.
Browntown shooting and seizure.
This comes on the heels of a June 30 shooting the Josephine County Sheriff deputies responded to the 100 block of Browntown Road in Holland for a report of a person shot. Upon arrival it was learned the victim was deceased and the reporting person was the shooter. The Oregon State Police Major Crime Team was requested by the sheriff’s office to assume lead on the investigation.
Preliminary investigation revealed, William Illingworth, 47, of Cave Junction, shot and killed a Jacob Benson, 42, who had entered his home after an escalating verbal argument. The incident is still under investigation, but is currently being investigated as a self-defense shooting. Illingworth has been cooperating with Detectives throughout the investigation.
Additionally in the 100 block of Browntown Rd. Law enforcement located an unlicensed cannabis operation.
The Josephine Marijuana Enforcement Team (JMET) executed a search warrant in the 100 block of Browntown Road seizing and destroyed 419 illegal cannabis plants located in three greenhouses.
