Eleven Days Later, Siskiyou County Offers a Bizarre Account of a Fort Bragg man’s Marijuana Arrest, Huh? Story repeated Verbatim Across News Sites

A Fort Bragg man, Shel Saunders, 55, was arrested in Siskiyou County on Jan. 16 on marijuana‑transportation charges. This is old news and normally wouldn’t merit coverage — he’s likely home by now and may have already retrieved his property. But for reasons unexplained, the sheriff’s office issued a press release Tuesday night, 11 days after the arrest.

That release is now circulating across Redding and Sacramento TV outlets and being re‑posted by regional aggregators. Few seemed to notice that the press release didn’t include the date of the arrest. It claims Saunders had 1,363 pounds of cultivated marijuana flower and no proof it was legally grown.

We’re increasingly frustrated by this kind of incomplete, delayed information being issued — and then rubber‑stamped by newsrooms that no longer question official narratives. The decline in crime reporting is a serious problem. Fortunately, in our region, law enforcement generally does not engage in deliberate deception, but the media’s failure to scrutinize basic details is becoming impossible to ignore.

It’s our job as journalists to ask questions, and we’re failing badly at it. The “news” game in 2026 has become little more than repeating official statements without scrutiny. Every site in this region — except us and the fading AVA — operates this way. We’re not looking for credit; we just want our profession back, not replaced by cheerleading websites.

The first outlet to slap up a press release now gets all the clicks, and readers have been conditioned to value immediacy over accuracy or context. That’s the disturbing part. A quick check of the county’s jail‑population search shows Saunders is no longer in custody — if he ever was.

The outdated crime report appeared on Siskiyou County’s website Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 27, and was quickly picked up by television newscasts, all using the same “public safety risk” framing. At this point, the information deserves serious scrutiny. The sheriff’s office claims the man was transporting 1,363 pounds of marijuana flower in 74 bags — roughly 18 pounds per bag. That would be extraordinarily dense “flower.” The accompanying photo shows thin black plastic bags stacked loosely on top of one another, raising even more questions. The whole thing feels, at best, very strange.

You can question the facts here, but one thing is certain: none of the other news outlets will. Most have become press‑release PR sites, posting whatever officials hand them without a single follow‑up. Questioning authority is no longer part of the job description in much of today’s media landscape. That may be why a federal shooting team in Minnesota now seems caught off guard by the sudden pushback they’re facing — they’re simply not used to being challenged.

The criminal case may already have been dismissed. Another troubling reality in 2026 is that court records are no longer accessible unless you physically drive to a courthouse and sift through heavily redacted files. And no — a bare list of charges is not the same as reading the actual documents or reviewing true “public” records.

Most news outlets are content to call the district attorney and treat that single perspective as the entire story. That’s deeply concerning. The old principle of “innocent until proven guilty” has largely vanished from the journalism landscape, replaced by a rush to publish whatever officials say first.

Here is the press release — take it as you will. We chose not to insert the Jan. 16 arrest date into the Jan. 27 release. The authorities failed to put any dates in. We had to track it down.

“Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 55-year-old Shel Saunders of Fort Bragg, CA after he was found to be transporting 1,363 pounds of illegally cultivated marijuana flower from the Mount Shasta Vista area.

Saunders was driving a sprinter van containing 74 bags of marijuana and $253,870 in US currency when he was pulled over for a traffic violation. A probable cause search of the vehicle was conducted and investigators could not locate any paperwork or licensure that indicated the marijuana was legally grown or certified for sale on the legal market. The large amount of US currency was believed to be connected to the sales of the illicit product, and a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun was located in the engine compartment. Saunders was then arrested for the transportation and possession of marijuana for sale and booked in the Siskiyou County jail.”

We’ll try to follow up on this — but don’t hold your breath. If the department ever decides to release actual facts, we’ll update the story, so check back. Until then, this is where the truth lives: in the only newsroom still bothering to ask basic questions while everyone else sprints to repost whatever lands in their inbox so check back.

The dateless press release is now circulating madly around the Internet and social media. We tried to tell people it was very old news and they refused to believe it. LOL. Plus it comes with this strange ending, which makes us think the county may have pushed this to scare people into getting all their permits.

Important to note that marijuana grown illegally in Siskiyou County is not held to the same quality and safety standards as marijuana products that comply with California regulations. Concerningly, illegal marijuana is often grown using toxic, banned pesticides that remain on the product after it is harvested and processed. Therefore, we encourage the public to visit the DCC Product Safety Portal: https://recalls.cannabis.ca.gov/ to verify whether or not they are consuming legally-sourced products.

Yes, the cartels made a horrific mess of California 5-10 years ago when prices of weed were high. Most of them left when the prices dropped and everything got way safer pretty quick. The authorities still want you to be scared and there are places where illegal growers are a nuisance, but legalization was as big of a disappointment to county coffers as to the criminals, the bottom fell out of everything, money, our economy and the crime wave.