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Drug evidence collected during arrest | Ventura County Sheriff’s Office
The Ventura County Fentanyl and Overdose Crimes Units (VCFOCUS) recently concluded an investigation involving 40-year-old Ventura resident Patrick Caleb Owens, suspected in the sale of controlled substances throughout Ventura County..
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Robert Davidson, throughout July 2023, VCFOCUS investigators received intelligence regarding “an unidentified individual” engaged in the illicit sale of controlled substances. Subsequent investigative efforts led to the identification of Owens as the suspect of the investigation.
Based upon that information, a search warrant for Owens’ residence was obtained and served on the morning of August 2nd as detectives spotted Owens driving through a residential beach community in the company of his four-year-old son. Owens’ vehicle was intercepted during a traffic stop, a brief search of his car was conducted, and he was found to be in possession “a minor quantity of concentrated cannabis and THC edibles.”
Unfortunately for her, 32-year-old Ventura resident Lauren Taulbee, Owens’ significant other and mother of the four-year-old child, voluntarily appeared at the scene of the traffic stop and was herself taken into custody.
The subsequent search of Owens’ residence unearthed a significant cache of illegal substances, including “approximately 98 pounds of processed marijuana, 30 pounds of concentrated cannabis, 9 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, 32 ounces of GHB, 32 ounces of cannabis syrup, 2 pounds of amphetamine pills, 1 pound of ecstasy pills, 11 ounces of cocaine, 300 THC vape cartridges and gummies,” with a combined street value of more than $400,000. Also discovered in the search were a shotgun and $88,520.00 in cash. The majority of this evidence was located “in a closet linked to Owens’ son’s bedroom.”
Patrick Owens and Lauren Taulbee were both transported to Ventura County Jail and booked on multiple charges of possession of controlled substances for the purpose of sale and child endangerment. Ventura County Child Protective Services assumed custody of Owens’s and Taulbee’s son.
