Two Westwood residents arrested on illegal weapon, drugs and resisting arrest charges

November 22, 2024November 22, 2024 Sam Williams, Publisher, lassennews.com

The Lassen County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team served a search warrant Friday, Nov. 15, and arrested Westwood residents Thomas Morris and Cynthia Johnson on a variety of charges.

Following a Nov. 7 Butte County arrest of Morris and Johnson — who were in possession of 84.9 grams of suspected fentanyl and 13.1 grams of suspected methamphetamine — the Butte County detectives developed additional information that contained evidence of drug sales and firearm(s) possession by Morris and Johnson.

Based on that information, Lassen County deputies authored a search warrant for their residence located on Ash Street in Westwood.

Personnel with the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office executed the search warrant. This included — LCSO SWAT, Drone Team, Crisis Negotiation Team and detectives from Butte County.

While on scene, information was developed that Morris and Johnson were most likely inside the residence. Therefore, the Crisis Negotiation Team continued to make announcements for Morris and Johnson to exit the residence, however, they did not comply.

This resulted in SWAT forcefully breaching the front door. After the front door had been breached, SWAT ordered Morris and Johnson to exit the residence, to which they complied. Morris and Johnson were taken into custody without (further) incident.

A search of the residence yielded several grams of suspected fentanyl, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. In addition, deputies discovered a flare gun.

Morris and Johnson were arrested for the following charges: felon in possession of a flare gun (29800(a)(1) PC), possession of fentanyl (11350(a) H&S), possession of methamphetamine (11377(a) H&S), possession of drug paraphernalia (11364(a) H&S) and resisting arrest (148(a)(1) PC).

The Lassen County Sheriff’s Office thanks the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, the Lassen County District Attorney’s Office and SEMSA for their assistance.

Lassen News has submitted a California Public Records Act request to the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office for the mugshots of Morris and Johnson. Mugshots are considered public records.