CHICKASHA – A raid earlier this month on a marijuana farm at Blanchard resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of marijuana products and the arrest of five people.
The Grady County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on Botanical Apotheca, a marijuana grow with 27 “hoop houses” off County Road 1341 in Blanchard. Sheriff Gary Boggess said the search warrant resulted from an investigation “initiated by an abandoned 911 call.”
The day before the search warrant was served, deputies stopped a vehicle as it was leaving the facility and found approximately 10 pounds of untagged vacuum-packed marijuana. Three Chinese nationals in the vehicle “were in the U.S. illegally” and were held in custody on a detainer for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Boggess
said.
During the service of that search warrant by the Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority, the following items were located and confiscated: 419.5 pounds (with packaging) of finished product (loose bud/flower) along with several 1-pound vacuum-packed bags of marijuana – “none of which contained the required documentation or tags (common for distribution on the black market),” the sheriff related.
Also located on the property were 3,162 untagged plants, 462 untagged plants located in a drying room, and 1,074 pounds (including packaging) of “shake/ trim/flower” mix, which Boggess described as “a product commonly processed to create a highly concentrated THC oil.”
All of the items that were seized were “unreconcilable and unregistered in Oklahoma's mandated tracking system and thus illegal,” the sheriff said.
Arrested at the grow operation were “mother and son owners/ operators” Annabelle Rangel, 44, and Drake Hassler, 23, both of whom listed in Oklahoma City address, Boggess reported.
Both suspects were charged in Grady County District Court with aggravated trafficking in illegal drugs and were released from custody on $50,000 bond each pending a preliminary hearing conference scheduled for Sept. 3.
Botanical Apotheca had a grower’s license for a location in Purcell, not Blanchard, that expired on March 22, 2024, OMMA records showed last week. Botanical Apotheca also has a dis pensary license for a location in Oklahoma City that expires Feb. 6, 2026, OMMA records reflect.