From left to right: Anderson, Kulikovskyi and Kozlenko

From the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On 08-28-2014, at approximately 9:00 a.m. Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputies assisted by Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, served two Humboldt County Superior Court search warrants in the Blocksburg area of Humboldt County. When they deputies arrived, they located three suspects living in three travel trailers on the property near marijuana plants. Those suspects were detained and were identified as Steven Eric Anderson, 47 years old, from Ukiah, Viktor Kulikovskyi, 22 years old, from Ukraine and Roman Kozlenko, 23 years old, also from Ukraine. Both the Ukrainian men told the deputies they have been in the United States about three years and are in the United States on student work Visas.

When the deputies searched the property, they located 4,412 growing marijuana plants that ranged in size from one foot to 10 feet tall, approximately six pounds of processed marijuana bud, evidence the marijuana was being sold, and numerous chemicals and fertilizers that were being used on the marijuana plants. Some of the plants were grown in large greenhouses and others were outdoors. The deputies also located significant environmental damage to the area, including timber conversion and illegal roads. Large water tanks and water bladders were on the property and were being used to store water to water the marijuana plants.

The deputies have contacted Cal-Fire and California Fish and Wildlife regarding the environmental damage they witnessed, and will be forwarding the case to those agencies for possible additional charges.

All three men were arrested and transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where they were booked on charges of cultivation, possession for sale and criminal conspiracy. Their bail was set at $25,000.00 each.

Anyone with information for the Sheriff’s Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.