FBI issues $100,000 reward for allegedly armed protester at Camarillo pot farm raid
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The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of a man believed to have fired a gun at officers during a chaotic immigration sweep at a Camarillo pot farm.
The federal law enforcement agency doubled its reward for a man who it said was apparently a protester at the July 10 raid and “appeared to point a firearm and possibly fired a pistol at federal law enforcement officers.”
The immigration action led to the arrests of more than 300 suspected undocumented workers during raids at the Camarillo and Carpinteria operations of Glass House Farms, a large publicly traded cannabis producer.
Protesters blocked the roads in and out of one of the farms, and at one point federal agents drove their vehicles through the fields.
Agents in masks and riot gear marched for hours through the company’s vast greenhouses in Camarillo as workers fled and hid in panic.
One worker, Jaime Alanís Garcia, died after he fell three stories while trying to evade capture.
Hundreds of protesters converged at the greenhouse site and squared off with immigration agents, who fired at them using less-than-lethal force.
Eight people were taken to local hospitals and others were treated at the scene, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
The FBI said the man who fired the weapon appeared to be a protester, adding that it does not “open investigations based on First Amendment protected activity. Assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal law enforcement officers performing their duties is a federal crime.”
Earlier this month, a professor at Cal State Channel Islands who was protesting the Camarillo raid was charged with assaulting U.S. Border Patrol agents with a deadly or dangerous weapon — a canister of their own tear gas.
Jonathan Caravello, 37, of Ventura, was indicted by a federal grand jury on one felony count of assault after prosecutors said he picked up a canister of tear gas shot by officers and lobbed it back at them.
Caravello was initially charged with felony assault in a criminal complaint filed on July 12 that was downgraded to a misdemeanor, to which he pleaded not guilty. The case was then sent to a grand jury for consideration.
Caravello was among four U.S. citizens arrested at the immigration raid on suspicion of assaulting or resisting officers, according to Homeland Security.
Trump administration officials defended the campaign to find and deport unlawful immigrants even as a cannabis farmworker was pulled from life support Saturday.
The raids shook up the state’s cannabis industry since Glass House Farms is one of the most prominent companies in California’s legal cannabis industry. The company employs some people directly and relies on farm labor contractors to supply the rest of its workforce.
The FBI asked anyone with information regarding the case to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), a local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate. It said those with tips could also submit them at tips.fbi.gov.
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