County responds to search warrant served at Tahoe Wellness Cooperative

Search warrants were served on Monday at five locations related to Tahoe Wellness Cooperative (TWC) and its owner Cody Bass. Staff from eight agencies spent hours at the South Lake Tahoe medical marijuana dispensary, pulling out boxes and containers of cannabis and records.

When the story was posted on South Tahoe Now June 1, it did not contain any statements from local law enforcement as they all deferred media outlets to a press release on the El Dorado County website. This was made available late Tuesday evening.

Members of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office, California Department of Justice, South Lake El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team (SLEDNET) Franchise Tax Board (FTB), Board of Equalization (BOE) and Employment Development Department (EDD) executed the search warrants. The Sheriff's office said the warrants relate to an investigation of TWC and its owner Cody Bass concerning possible violation of tax evasion and illegal possession for sale of marijuana.

Bass voiced concern on Monday, stating the raid was due to a letter he wrote to the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors over a week ago. In that letter, Bass said it was unfair that deputy Mark Zlendick was on a paid leave after his arrest in Douglas County May 19 on charges of possession of a controlled substance, trafficking methamphetamine, conspiracy and possession of paraphernalia. Bass went on to say Zlendick had acted malicious towards medical marijuana patients and harassed the community of South Lake Tahoe

This joint investigation of TWC and Cody Bass by state, county and city law enforcement agencies has been ongoing for several months according to the press release. No one was arrested and no charges have been filed, as the investigation is still ongoing.

Investigators seized large amounts of evidence and documents, all of which they said they are evaluating and auditing. Bass said patient records are kept on a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) cloud data system and the seized computers contained nothing about patients.