Criminal Grand Jury Indicts San Jacinto City Councilman

SAN JACINTO, CA — A Riverside County criminal grand jury indictment unsealed Friday charges two San Jacinto men with the alleged operation of an illegal cannabis dispensary in their city — one of the men is 35-year-old Joel Lopez, a sitting San Jacinto City Council member.

Lopez along with Edward Padilla, Jr., 32, have each been charged in the indictment with one felony count of conspiracy to commit misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance for sale, one felony count of maintaining a place for the purpose of unlawfully selling or giving away a controlled substance, one misdemeanor count of operating without a seller’s permit, and one misdemeanor count of failure to file a sales and use tax return.

Lopez was arrested the afternoon of June 10 at a residence on Avenida Rosa Mundi in San Jacinto. He posted $100,000 bail the same day and was released from custody. He is scheduled to be arraigned in October, jail records show.

Padilla was arrested in Santa Ana on June 15. He remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail and is slated to be arraigned Tuesday.

According to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting the case, both defendants hired people to work at their unlicensed "Santa Fe Collective" at 1190 S. San Jacinto Ave., which sold cannabis and THC products directly at the store and through a delivery service.

The DA's office named Lopez as the person controlling the business's proceeds.

Cannabis operations are allowed in San Jacinto, but city and state permits are required. The types of permitted operations allowed include indoor cultivation, outdoor cultivation, dispensaries, distribution, manufacturing, micro-businesses, and testing laboratories, according to the city's Commercial Cannabis Permitting web portal.

A search of the California Bureau of Cannabis Control resulted in no matches for the 1190 S. San Jacinto Ave. address.

On June 18, 2019, the San Jacinto City Council adopted ordinances designed to "streamline" the cannabis permitting process. Lopez sat was on the council at that time.

The Santa Fe Collective is located a half-mile from City Hall on the same street.

Requests for comment from Lopez and the city of San Jacinto were not immediately returned.