A Siskiyou County cannabis farmer has been found guilty of federal charges for trying to bribe former Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey. 31-year-old Chi Meng Yang of Montague and 36-year-old Goasheng Laitinen of Mount Shasta apparently had a meeting with Sheriff Lopey on May 17th of 2017, at which Yang presented himself as a representative for several families of marijuana cultivators in Siskiyou County. He offered the Sheriff One Million Dollars for his assistance smoothing the way for an interstate marijuana distribution business that was being organized. After the meeting Sheriff Lopey called the FBI and the DEA. Federal agents had the Sheriff set up some more meetings with Yang, which were audio and video recorded. Yang offered the Sheriff an initial payment of $80,000 to exempt 8 properties from the county’s outdoor growing ban, and several cash installments were made totaling $10,500. Later that year the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office raided a growing operation on Yang’s property. Yang has been in custody ever since. On Friday Yang was convicted of federal charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. He’ll be sentenced in June.
There is no custom code to display.
There is no custom code to display.
