California law enforcement is turning up the heat on illegal pot shops – and people in the legal pot business are stoked.

“I’m really, absolutely for it,” said Keyva King, CEO of Royal Highness, a pot shop on track to open in November in Palm Desert.

Royal Highness – a play on King’s last name – already has a temporary license from the state of California. But King is disappointed to see black market competitors undercutting legal cannabis companies.

“It’s hard when you have them and they’re not charging taxes and their prices are way more competitive,” she said.

So King was reassured last week, when she heard about a crackdown on an unlicensed cannabis retailer in Costa Mesa. One man had been charged with four misdemeanor counts related to cannabis already.

“I was like: ‘Good, when are they gonna do more?’” she said.

Eight months after California opened up the market for adult-use marijuana, state and local law enforcement is taking aim at businesses still operating outside the law.

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On August 22, the Division of Investigation at the Department of Consumer Affairs served one of its first search warrants on an unlicensed home delivery business. The next day, a Riverside County District Attorney’s Office task force served its first search warrant on a dispensary operated out of a large trailer; on August 24, the Division of Investigation served another warrant, this one on a cannabis shop.

The series of search-and-seizures follow earlier enforcement efforts, including more than 2,500 cease-and-desist letters the Bureau of Cannabis Control has sent to unlicensed cannabis businesses to date. Agency spokesperson Alex Traverso said BCC has referred more than 500 complaints of unlicensed businesses to the Division of Investigations so far.

“You’re seeing more criminal prosecutions, because people have now had the opportunity to get licensed,” said Ryan Kocot, a Sacramento-based cannabis industry attorney.

Crackdowns on illicit cannabis businesses are nothing new. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, for example, has been serving search warrants on unlicensed dispensaries since 2010, according to the agency. Through the civil process, Riverside County says it has shut down 89 dispensaries on unincorporated land since 2013, where the businesses are banned under county ordinance.

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But the August enforcement actions are still welcome news to professionals operating in the legal cannabis industry, who hope publicity around the search warrants will chasten competitors operating without a license into complying with the law or shutting down.

“When these existing temporary licensees see these illegal businesses getting cracked down on, they’re more comfortable investing the money to get the annual license,” Kocot said. “No amount of money is worth going to jail for.”

Greta Carter, the founder of Highroad Consulting Group in Desert Hot Springs, said she’s “encouraged” to see California take an assertive approach to policing unlicensed cannabis companies, as well as pop-in inspections on licensed marijuana businesses. Strict compliance with state law, she said, is what keeps federal law enforcement at bay.

“They (federal law enforcement) very much could come in and flex their muscles if they thought California was doing a poor job,” she said.

Still, California is far from stamping out illicit sales. While the cannabis research firm New Frontier Data predicted in April that legal sales will eclipse illegal sales in California this year, the firm estimated the illicit market would still be worth $2.62 billion in 2018.

Navigating the web of local cannabis laws will be one challenge for law enforcement seeking to weed out illicit operators, said Josh Drayton, a spokesperson for the California Cannabis Industry Association. About 65 percent of the state either bans cannabis or is still developing cannabis regulations, he said, leaving existing marijuana companies no pathway to legalize.

Even in the Coachella Valley, where many cities allow cannabis businesses, Carter said some operators still have not yet transitioned into the legal market.

“We’ve got a long ways to go in the valley, I’ll tell you that,” she said.

Amy DiPierro covers real estate and business news at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. Reach her at amy.dipierro@desertsun.com or (760)-218-2359. Follow her on Twitter @amydipierro.