One of the owners of 805 Beach Breaks in Grover Beach is facing criminal charges in Santa Barbara County.
Brian Touey is charged with perjury, possession of marijuana for sale, and cultivating marijuana.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The charges come about a month after the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at Touey’s Grover Beach cannabis dispensary and at a cultivation site in Los Alamos.
Touey is accused of providing fraudulent information related to the licensing for the cultivation facility.
Sheriff’s officials say they found more than 700,000 illegal marijuana plants during the investigation.
KSBY News attempted to reach out to Touey for comment on Thursday but has not yet received a response.
805 Beach Breaks was the first retail cannabis shop to open in Grover Beach. It’s been open for nearly a year.
When the search warrant was served there in March, city officials said 805 Beach Breaks would be allowed to continue operating as a licensed commercial cannabis business, and it was back open for business later that same day.
However, officials said the Grover Beach Police Department would be opening up an investigation to determine if any illegal activity had occurred in that city.
The investigation is now complete. “(It) did not identify any criminal activity that occurred at the store and the store continues to operate with its City permits,” City officials told KSBY late Thursday night.
Touey’s next court date is scheduled for May 2, 2019.
