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Aug. 25 (UPI) — Eight alleged gang members have been arrested in break-ins of high-end items and firearms from at least 92 homes and businesses, the Los Angeles Police Department announced Monday.

The suspects, who have been arrested and charged, are believed to be members of the Rich Rollin Burglary Crew, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference. They range in age from 20 to 47, police said.

Also, two other men were linked to the burglary crew but were already in custody on suspicion of an unrelated attempted murder, police said.

“These individuals represent the kind of repeat offenders we are targeting through our suppression strategies and their arrests underscore our progress in reducing burglaries and other crimes,” the chief told reporters.

McDonnell said they focused on West Los Angeles and near Los Angeles International Airport, though some crimes were in the San Fernando Valley, police said.

They sought high-end jewelry, purses, watches and wallets, as well as guns and suitcases, police say. The items were sold for cash, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said.

“They come in here, not because they need anything, but because of greed,” Hochman said. “They don’t want to use (the stolen items) for their own benefit, they are using that [to get] money.”

Some of the accused could face life in prison because they have one or two strikes against them, Hochman said.

Police said they are members of the Rollin’ 30s and 55 Neighborhood.

None of the burglaries are linked to a recent crime wave in Encino, and instead were from 2022, with most last year and this year.

At 5 a.m. Wednesday, search warrants were served at eight homes in Los Angeles, Hawthorn, Inglewood and Carson. Besides stolen high-end items and currency, police said they found 15 firearms, weapon magazines, burglary tools, narcotics, masks, cellphones and radios.

Police said they got a break in the burglary cases on Feb. 13 when three suspects in a van were arrested after a vehicle pursuit. The vehicle was recognized from two burglaries the day before, McDonnell said.

In April, police found items from a search warrant. Included were stolen credit cards and license plates, he said.

Mayor Karen Ross praised the “extraordinary work of our LAPD and our regional partners,” including Hawthorne and Inglewood police departments.

She said it was a “major win” for her city, and “we won’t stop doing whatever we need to do to combat crime.”

Police said some places may have been targeted because of postings on social media.

“You’re showing off Rolexes, fancy bags, fancy cars, this kind of stuff. You make yourself a target,” McDonnell said before the announced arrests during a meeting with the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association last week.

Also, McDonnell said upscale restaurant patrons may be targeted.

Homicides in Los Angeles are down 9% from the previous year.

The plan, called ‘Sovereign Brazil’, will include credit for businesses that rely on exports.

The Brazilian government has unveiled a plan to support local exporters impacted by the 50 percent tariff imposed by the United States.

Officials announced what has been dubbed “Sovereign Brazil”, a credit lifeline of 30 billion reais ($5.5bn) on Wednesday.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the plan, which includes a bill to be sent to Congress, as a first step to help local exporters.

Congressional leaders attended Wednesday’s ceremony, a first in months, in a sign of growing political support for the leftist leader in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Other measures announced by the Brazilian government include postponing tax charges for companies affected by US tariffs, providing 5 billion reais ($926,000) in tax credits to small and medium-sized companies until the end of 2026 and expanding access to insurance against cancelled orders. The plan also incentivises public purchases of items that could not be exported to the US.

The measures take effect immediately, but will only stay in place for four months unless Congressional leaders act.

“We cannot be scared, nervous and anxious when there is a crisis. A crisis is for us to create new things,” President Lula said. “In this case, what is unpleasant is that the reasons given to impose sanctions against Brazil do not exist.”

The tariffs have drastically weighed on sectors across the South American nation, including the beef industry. In July, when Trump first announced the plan, Robert Perosa, president of industry trade group Brazilian Beef Exporters Associations (ABIEC), said that the tariffs would make it  “economically unfeasible” to continue to export to the US market.

Trump has directly tied the 50 percent tariff on many imported Brazilian goods to the judicial situation of his embattled ally, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest.

In late July, the White House said that the order to impose this rate of tariffs is because of “the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil”.

The former Brazilian leader is accused of trying to facilitate a coup after losing the election in 2022.

Legal marijuana businesses in Los Angeles will pay thousands more dollars in renewal fees, the City Council decided Tuesday, bringing fresh financial woes to an already constricting market.

City officials said the fee increases are necessary to make up for declining tax revenue from the marijuana industry, at a time when the city is in dire financial straits.

“This is a difficult but necessary action for the continued functions of [the cannabis department] and to avoid further strain on our General Fund,” City Councilmember Imelda Padilla in a statement.

But some struggling business owners said the increased fees could threaten their survival.

Luis Rivera previously ran three different marijuana delivery businesses in the city, two of which have gone under. He’s now considering shuttering the remaining one, Bonafide Delivery in Sun Valley, due to the fee increases and low profit margins.

“There’s nowhere to pull the money from,” Rivera said. “The fees will be disastrous.”

The new fees, which the council approved unanimously, are expected to bring in about $6 million this year to the city’s Department of Cannabis Regulation, which is required to recoup all its expenses through fees or other charges.

After four straight years where gross receipt taxes from marijuana sales exceeded $100 million, the amount dropped to about $90 million in 2024, according to cannabis department data.

High state and local taxes and the high cost of doing business because of a lack of access to traditional banking and financing, as well as competition with the illegal cannabis market, have contributed to the falling revenue, said Bryan Bergman, an attorney who works with cannabis businesses.

The illegal dispensaries often undercut the prices of legal stores, in part because they do not pay taxes or fees, and have also been hotbeds of crime, according to law enforcement.

“The fee increases are coming at a really bad time for industry folks. And it’s a very significant increase,” Bergman said.

Cannabis products for sale at Bonafide in Sun Valley.

(David Butow/For the Times)

The cannabis department’s budget is $8.6 million for this fiscal year, and it is expected to pay additional $19 million to other parts of city government, such as the city attorney’s office, for their marijuana-related work.

While increasing fees for marijuana businesses, the new ordinance decreases fines for major violations of city rules and regulations. For example, delivering marijuana goods outside of allowable hours will now result in a $23,000 fine, down from $42,000.

The new ordinance also creates a new category of “severe” violation, such as diverting cannabis to unlawful establishments, which would result in a $34,000 fine. Cannabis Department officials said the goal was to avoid excessively heavy fines.

Los Angeles has the nation’s largest municipal commercial cannabis department, overseeing nearly 1,100 licenses for brick-and-mortar dispensaries, delivery businesses and growing operations.

Department officials argued that its fees, which had not gone up since 2020, did not match the cost of operations. Since the department first authorized fees in 2020, its staff has grown from 37 to 63 members. Through collective bargaining agreements, their salaries have also increased 19% since 2020.

The most widespread hit for marijuana businesses will come from renewal fees, which must be paid annually.

A license renewal will jump from $8,486 to $12,617. A temporary approval renewal will go from $4,233 to $6,294, and a record renewal will increase from $1,829 to $2,719.

The new ordinance also contains other fee changes, including an increase in the business diagram modification review fee and a drop in the ownership structure modification review fee.

A Cannabis Department spokesperson said that participants in its social equity program, which provides support to cannabis operators from communities most harmed by the war on drugs, will have some of their increased fees covered by money from a state grant.

The grant will cover about $3.1 million in new fees, said Jason Killeen, the cannabis department’s assistant executive director, during a city council committee meeting Tuesday. More than half of the money will cover the difference between the old renewal fee and the new one for the 317 social equity license holders. The rest of the grant money will go toward new applicants for social equity licenses.

The increased fees come as the city struggles with a budget crisis likely to continue for several years. This year’s budget closes a nearly $1-billion gap through layoffs and other cuts.

The City Council approved an increase in ticket prices for the L.A. Zoo and has taken steps to raise trash fees for roughly 740,000 customers. The city may also raise parking meter fees and extend the meters’ hours of operation.

The Cannabis Department has acknowledged that the new fees will be a hardship for businesses.

“Please understand that this fee study was necessitated by law and is central to DCR’s ability to continue serving this community effectively and equitably,” Executive Director Michelle Garakian wrote in a July news bulletin. “It’s easy to feel like no one at the City cares. But I assure you, DCR does. DCR has to navigate limited resources, competing needs, and make challenging decisions.”

Bangkok, Thailand – Even at the Nana intersection, a pulsating mecca of this megacity’s seamy nightlife scene, the Wonderland cannabis shop is hard to miss.

Its sprawling, ruby-pink signboard screams across the busy crossroads, broadcasting the wares inside with the help of neon lights twisted into luminescent marijuana leaves.

It is Saturday afternoon, and business should be good. But it is not.

Just days earlier, Thailand’s government imposed new rules sharply curbing the sale of cannabis, only three years after decriminalising the plant with much fanfare and unleashing a billion-dollar business in the process.

All sales of cannabis buds must now be accompanied by a doctor’s prescription – a stipulation aimed at choking off the recreational market, the mainstay of most of the thousands of dispensaries that now dot the country.

Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin has also announced his intention to place the plant back on the country’s controlled narcotics list within 45 days, putting it in the company of cocaine, heroin and meth.

Nanuephat Kittichaibawan, an assistant manager at Wonderland, said his shop used to serve 10 or more customers an hour most afternoons.

Now, even with an in-house doctor to write prescriptions on the spot, “it is just one or two”, he told Al Jazeera.

“It is more complicated than it used to be, and for some people it will be too much,” he added.

Like many in the business, he worries the new rules may even force him to shut down, putting him out of work.

“If we follow the rules, we could [have to] close,” he said. “I do worry about that. A lot of people have this as their main job, and they need it to survive.”

Faris Pitsuwan, who owns five dispensaries on some of Thailand’s most popular tourist islands, including Ko Phi Phi Don and Phuket, is worried, too.

“Yesterday, I could not sell anything,” he told Al Jazeera. “I hope my business will survive, but too soon to say.”

While announcing the policy U-turn last week, Somsak said the new rules would help contain Thailand’s cannabis industry to the medical market, as intended when a previous administration, and a different health minister, decriminalised the plant in 2022.

“The policy must return to its original goal of controlling cannabis for medical use only,” government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub said.

Since a new administration took over in 2023, the government has blamed decriminalisation for a wave of problems, including a spike in overdoses among children and adolescents and increased smuggling to countries where cannabis is still illegal.

A survey by the government’s National Institute of Development Administration last year found that three in four Thais strongly or moderately agreed with putting cannabis back on the narcotics list.

Smith Srisont, president of Thailand’s Association of Forensic Physicians, has been urging the government to relist cannabis from the beginning, mostly because of the health risks.

Smith notes that more than one study has found a fivefold to sixfold spike in cannabis-related health problems among children and adolescents since legalisation.

Although shops have been forbidden from selling to anyone below the age of 20, Smith says it has been too hard to enforce because the job falls mostly on health officers, rather than police, and Thailand does not have enough.

“So, they can’t … look at every shop,” he told Al Jazeera, but “if cannabis is [treated more] like methamphetamine … it will be … better because the police can [then get] involved” right away.

Many farmers and shop owners, though, say the blowback from legalising cannabis has been exaggerated, and scapegoated by the leading Pheu Thai Party to punish the Bhumjaithai Party, which abandoned the ruling coalition two weeks ago over Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s alleged bungling of a border dispute with Cambodia.

Somsak has denied the claim.

Bhumjaithai had led the push to decriminalise cannabis and was tussling with Pheu Thai for control of the powerful Ministry of the Interior in the weeks leading up to its split from the coalition.

“As soon as one party steps down from the coalition, this happens. The timing just could not be any more perfect,” Chokwan Chopaka, who opened a dispensary along Bangkok’s bustling Sukhumvit Boulevard soon after Thailand legalised cannabis, told Al Jazeera.

“I understand that cannabis does create issues,” she said, “[but] I feel that those issues could have been at least mitigated if the government were actually enforcing the rules that [did] exist in the first place.”

Chokwan said she had to shutter her shop a few months ago because she could no longer both follow those rules and compete with other dispensaries in the neighbourhood that were getting away with breaking them.

She expects that most dispensaries will end up closing if the new rules are enforced diligently, many of them before recouping the investments they made to get up and running.

“A lot of people are very stressed out. We’re talking about people that are borrowing money into this. This is their last breath, their last lot of savings, because our economy hasn’t been well,” Chokwan said.

The Thai government said in May that the national economy may grow by as little as 1.3 percent this year, dragged down in part by slumping tourist arrivals.

The government has blamed the freewheeling cannabis scene of the past three years for putting some tourists off Thailand – another reason, it argues, to tighten the reins.

Shah, on his second trip to Thailand from India in the past year, said the new rules could do more harm than good by pushing tourists like him and his friend away.

“One of the reasons that we do come here is so that we can smoke good weed,” Shah, who asked to be referred to by his last name only, told Al Jazeera.

Having landed in Bangkok only hours earlier, Shah and his friend were leaving a Nana neighbourhood dispensary with their purchase.

A self-avowed recreational user, Shah said the shop wrote him a prescription with few questions and no fuss.

But if the government does get serious about enforcing the new rules, he added, “maybe I’ll think twice next time and go somewhere else.”

Cannabis farmers are fretting about the new rules, too.

To keep selling their buds to local shops, every farm will soon need a Good Agriculture and Collection Practice (GACP) certificate from the government.

It certifies that the farm has met certain quality control standards.

Chokwan, who also leads the Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network, a cannabis advocacy group, said only about 100 cannabis farms across the country currently have GACP certification.

Getting farms ready and tested can be expensive, she said, while forcing it on all farmers will weed out thousands of “little guys”, leaving the largest farms and the corporations backing them to dominate the market.

Coming in at less than 300 square metres (360 square yards), under banks of LED lights inside an unassuming beige building on the outskirts of Bangkok, the Thai Kush cannabis farm easily qualifies as one of the little guys.

Owner Vara Thongsiri said the farm has been supplying shops across the country since 2022. His main gripe with the new rules is how suddenly they came down.

“When you announce it and your announcement is effective immediately, how does a farm adapt that quickly? It is impossible. They didn’t even give us a chance,” he told Al Jazeera.

Vara said he would apply for the certificate nonetheless and was confident the quality of his buds would help his farm survive even in a smaller, medical-cannabis-only marketplace, depending on how long the application takes.

“My farm is a working farm. We harvest every month … If the process takes three months to six months, how am I going to last if I can’t sell the product I have?” he said.

“Because a farm can’t last if it can’t sell.”

Rattapon Sanrak, a cannabis farmer and shop owner, is crunching the numbers on the new regulations as well.

His small farm in the country’s fertile northeast supplies his two Highland Cafe dispensaries in Bangkok, including one in the heart of the city’s Khao San quarter, a warren of bars, clubs and budget accommodations catering to backpackers.

“I could stay open, but as [per] my calculation, it may not [be] worth the business. It’s not feasible any more due to the regulations, the rental and other costs,” he told Al Jazeera.

“It’s not worth the money to invest.”

Rattapon and others believe the government could have avoided the latest policy whiplash by passing a comprehensive cannabis control bill either before decriminalisation or soon after.

Like others critical of the government’s approach, he blames political brinkmanship between Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai for failing to do so.

Proponents of such a bill say it could have set different rules for farms based on their size, helping smaller growers stay in business, and better regulations to help head off the problems the government is complaining about now.

Although a bill has been drafted, Somsak has said he has no intention of pushing it forward, insisting that placing the plant back on the narcotics list was the best way to control it.

The Writing Thailand’s Cannabis Future Network plans to hold a protest in front of the Ministry of Public Health on Monday in hopes of changing the minister’s mind.

Rattapon said he and hundreds of other farmers and shop owners also plan on filing a class action lawsuit against the government over the new rules.

In the meantime, Rattapon and others warn, the government’s attempt at confining cannabis to the medical market will not simply make the recreational supply chain vanish.

Rattapon said many producers, having poured in millions of dollars and put thousands of people to work, will go underground, where they will be even harder to control.

“Imagine you have a company, you hire 10 people, you invest 2 million baht [$61,630] for that, you’re operating your business, and then one day they say that you cannot sell it any more. And in the pipeline, you have 100 kilograms coming. What would you do?” he said.

“They will go underground.”

Faris, the dispensary owner, agreed.

He said many of the shops and farms that rely on the recreational market will close under the new rules.

“But as time goes by,” he added, “people will find a way.”