The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW’s) Law Enforcement Division (LED) investigates crimes against California’s natural resources. Today, wildlife is being poached throughout the State, State waters are being polluted, streams and critical habitats are being destroyed, and human activities are damaging wildlife habitat and requiring responses from wildlife officers at historic levels. Crimes associated with cannabis cultivation cause significant environmental damage. The Cannabis Enforcement Program (CEP), now a statewide program, targets those cultivators operating without the necessary permits and engaging in significant environmental pollution in conjunction with their unpermitted activity. One of the more effective enforcement tools remains the administrative enforcement authority provided by Fish and Game Code Section 12025. Enforcement attorneys draft complaints against these cultivators and once they are served complaints, litigate the claims against them, as needed. Due to the unpermitted nature of their activities, most of the growers and/or landowners avoid contact. In addition, many of the growers and/or landowners are from out of state and/or operate under a Limited Liability Corporation (L.L.C.) Given LED’s limited resources and the elusive nature of the parties CDFW is trying to service, services of a private process server with a proven record of serving similarly elusive parties are required.
