Cannabis supply firm claims $250,000 theft of nutrients from big rig in Fresno County

A cannabis supply company based in Washington state says a quarter-million dollars in supplies were stolen from a big rig after the truck was in Riverdale on Sunday night.

The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

The truck and trailer were later recovered in Oakland, but the cargo — cannabis nutrients —was gone, according to Clarie Darnell, spokeswoman for Advanced Nutrients of Woodland, Wash.

Darnell said the 53-foot refrigerated trailer was “ransacked.”

The nutrients were being shipped to the company’s warehouse in Valencia..

The theft is preventing “the production of medicinal crops upon which millions of Americans constantly rely,” Darnell said.

She said the firm hired a trucking company to ship the nutrients, and the driver stopped overnight.

Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said the driver reported the theft occurred near Mt. Whitney and Cornelia avenues.

Darnell said the cargo was insured, but quoted the firm’s owner, Michael “Big Mike” Straumietis, who said:

“The real victims here are the cannabis growers who were going to feed these nutrients to their crops.”