(PatriotWise.com) — Police in Alhambra, California, revealed last weekend that roughly 235 pounds of methamphetamine were discovered in an Airbnb last month by a cleaning crew.
According to a statement posted on Facebook, officers were called to the property by the cleaners, who found boxes containing the meth. The footage from the doorbell camera showed two individuals arriving in a U-Haul van used to transport the drugs. While officers were on the scene, the U-Haul showed up again. When the occupants saw the police, they attempted to flee but were apprehended on suspicion of transporting narcotics.
According to Alhambra Police Sgt. Efren Tamayo, the incident occurred just before noon on Friday, May 24.
The police did not say if the suspects had rented the Airbnb or were the owners of the property.
The news comes just weeks after a group of Long Beach residents petitioned the city council to remove most of the short-term rental properties from their neighborhood.
In 2020, the city council passed an ordinance that permitted up to 800 short-term rental properties like Airbnb after it was revealed that the city had over a thousand short-term properties that were operating illegally.
As part of the new ordinance, individual neighborhoods could ban un-hosted short-term rentals like Airbnb if more than half of their census block signed a petition requesting it.
The Long Beach Safe Neighborhood Coalition spearheaded a petition for the College Estates neighborhood of Long Beach. Last month, the group obtained the signatures required, becoming the first Long Beach neighborhood to drive short-term rentals out.
In its plea to the city, the group argued that un-hosted short-term rentals eroded the housing market and destroyed communities. The group is demanding that the city council “go back to the drawing board” to enact a more restrictive ordinance against short-term rentals.
Multiple California cities have banned short-term rentals, including Danville, Carmel, Huntington Beach, Sausalito, and West Hollywood. Others, including San Francisco and Santa Monica, have enacted partial bans.
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