Full Notification

On February 27, 2023 at approximately 3 PM, several Lakeport Police Officers served a Lake County Superior Court Search Warrant on a storage unit locker in Kelseyville, CA that was under the control of James Biocca Jr (54, of Healdsburg, CA) and Melody Yadon (51, of Willits, CA). The probable cause for this search warrant was based on Biocca’s arrest on February 7th, 2023 when he was in possession of approximately 98.8 grams of Fentanyl and approximately 21.3 grams of methamphetamine that were packaged for sale.

At approximately 4:30 PM while officers were searching the storage locker, Biocca and Yadon showed up at the storage facility in the same vehicle Biocca was driving when he was previously arrested. Prior to their arrival, officers had already located suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in the locker. Officers contacted Biocca in the storage facility office and arrested him. Officers subsequently located methamphetamine in Biocca’s front sweatshirt pocket.

Officers also contacted Yadon who was still in the vehicle and arrested her. The vehicle was searched incident to the arrests and additional methamphetamine and fentanyl were found. During today’s investigation, other items of evidence including $1,042 were located which indicated the drugs were possessed for sale.

Biocca and Yadon were transported to the Lake County Correctional Facility for booking. During the booking process, Yadon was found to have additional fentanyl hidden on her person.

Biocca was booked for the following felony crimes: Possession for sale and transportation of a controlled substance, possession for sale and transportation of a narcotic, possession of pepper spray by a convicted felon, conspiracy to commit a felony, and committing a felony while out on bail for a felony. Officers sought a bail enhancement on him and a superior court judge ordered bail of: $250,000.

Biocca has an extensive criminal history that includes drug arrests, burglary, vehicle theft, receiving stolen property, evading a peace officer, and 6 prior felony convictions.

Yadon was booked for the following felony crimes: Possession for sale and transportation of a controlled substance, possession for sale and transportation of a narcotic, and conspiracy to commit a felony. Yadon’s bail was set by the bail schedule at $10,000.

Between the items located at the search warrant and those found in possession of Biocca and Yadon, Officer Seized approximately 50.7g of methamphetamine and approximately 36.2g of suspected fentanyl. In total, between the two recent arrests of Biocca, Officers have seized approximately 72 grams (2.54 ounces) of suspected methamphetamine and approximately 135 grams (4.76 ounces) of suspected fentanyl.

Similar to the February 7th seizure, some of the fentanyl seized today was a type commonly known as “Rainbow Fentanyl” which means the drugs were multicolored to make them look more attractive.

According to the DEA, just 2 milligrams of fentanyl is considered to be enough to cause an overdose and kill someone. Based on this data, the amount of fentanyl seized today could have killed up to 18,100 people. The amount seized between these two separate arrests could have killed up to 67,500 people.

The Lakeport Police Department is committed to removing dangerous drugs from our community and working to ensure that Lakeport is a safe place to live and work. We would like to encourage those who are addicted to dangerous drugs, like fentanyl, to reach out and seek rehabilitative treatment. The police department currently is partnered with the Lake Family Resource Center and has a Crisis Responder who can link those in need with life-changing services. If this is something that you would like more information on, please contact our agency by calling 707-263-5491 or emailing us at [email protected], or by sending us a message on Facebook.

Brad Rasmussen
Chief of Police