Feds raid Denver-area marijuana dispensaries and grow operations

[CaseyJones]

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24570937/feds-involved-enforcement-actions-at-denver-area-marijuana


Federal authorities Thursday morning were executing search warrants and seizure warrants at multiple Denver-area medical marijuana facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The raids are occurring at both medical marijuana dispensaries and at warehouses where pot is grown.

"The Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, the Denver Police Department and state and local law enforcement are today executing lawfully obtained search warrants and seizure warrants," said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the DOJ.

"Although we cannot at this time discuss the substance of this pending investigation, the operation under way today comports with the Department's recent guidance regarding marijuana enforcement matters," Dorschner said in his e-mailed statement to The Denver Post.

"As this is an on-going investigation, no additional information will be made available," he said.

[dannno]

comports with the Department's recent guidance regarding marijuana enforcement matters

What guidance? You mean the one where people voted to legalize it?

[tod evans]

Okay Coloradans ball's in your court....

[edit]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMFYs3gfgis

[69360]

But king Obama the first said he wasn't going to do that...

[Elias Graves]

But king Obama the first said he wasn't going to do that...

That was yesterday. You have to check back daily to see what the law will be.

[Miss Annie]

Gotta wonder if this has anything to do with those articles of Impeachment filed against Holder?

[youngbuck]

Most of these diehard marijuana activists are total Obama-voting pussies. They're all about the 10th amendment when it comes to their single issue, but are very far from a comprehensive liberty position. Just as I suspected would happen, the administration is stepping up enforcement efforts against state-legal marijuana activities. Will the people pull their heads out of their asses? I'm not holding my breath.

[69360]

That was yesterday. You have to check back daily to see what the law will be.

It's not a law, King Barry rules by decree. See his extra legal and everchanging decrees on immigration, drugs and healthcare. One day it's selective non-enforcement, the next it's not.

[mad cow]

Now who will get the stiffer sentence,larger fine,bigger asset forfeiture,these Colorado pot growers or Trey Radel?

[Dr.3D]

Now who will get the stiffer sentence,larger fine,bigger asset forfeiture,these Colorado pot growers or Trey Radel?
Maybe if more people knew about jury nullification, neither of them would be sentenced.

[Dary]

So the local Sheriff must have been in on it.

[Mani]

So the local Sheriff must have been in on it.


The absolute last thing in the world the Police want is Marijuana legalized. Half their excuses for groping people, searching people, breaking down doors, cavity searching people, is because, "Sniff sniff....I smell something..." They can violate a person any which way just because, "They smell something."

They don't want that power taken away from them. So of course the local and state authorities will gleefully participate in any of these federal attacks.

[Feeding the Abscess]

The absolute last thing in the world the Police want is Marijuana legalized. Half their excuses for groping people, searching people, breaking down doors, cavity searching people, is because, "Sniff sniff....I smell something..." They can violate a person any which way just because, "They smell something."

They don't want that power taken away from them. So of course the local and state authorities will gleefully participate in any of these federal attacks.

More importantly than the power it gives them, that's the reason for half of the police force. Take away the drug war, and a good chunk of the police force instantly becomes unnecessary.

Democrats love unions, so they'll never support anything that lessens the police union.

Republicans will never give up the drug war, because they love legislating morality.

Both love cops. Nothing will ever come of ending the drug war politically.

[Brian4Liberty]

No time for muggers, thieves, robberies. Have to chase down pot plants instead.

[tod evans]

Reading about this on a couple of "newz" sites and don't know whether to cry or scream at the apologists.

It seems as though a few of the groups that pushed so hard to pass the weed laws are now on their knees in front of the feds.

[specsaregood]

More importantly than the power it gives them, that's the reason for half of the police force. Take away the drug war, and a good chunk of the police force instantly becomes unnecessary.


don't forget the prison guards as well. I know at one point the prison guard unions were the #1 lobbying group for the war on drugs in terms of $ spent.

[Dary]

The absolute last thing in the world the Police want is Marijuana legalized. Half their excuses for groping people, searching people, breaking down doors, cavity searching people, is because, "Sniff sniff....I smell something..." They can violate a person any which way just because, "They smell something."

They don't want that power taken away from them. So of course the local and state authorities will gleefully participate in any of these federal attacks.

Yeah. My point is that Sheriffs are elected.

[tod evans]

Yeah. My point is that Sheriffs are elected.

Just look at how the elections helped all those folks in jail now.

Maybe a strongly worded letter and electing a new sheriff in a couple of years will help the next batch...

[Root]

It seems as though a few of the groups that pushed so hard to pass the weed laws are now on their knees in front of the feds.
Just how the state likes it.

[kcchiefs6465]

No time for muggers, thieves, robberies. Have to chase down pot plants instead.
Interstate commerce.

[pcosmar]

Yet another good reason to get out of the cities.
This should not be a law.

edit; oops..
Wrong thread,, but it fits here too.

[kcchiefs6465]

Raich v. Gonzalez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich)

[Dary]

Just look at how the elections helped all those folks in jail now.

Maybe a strongly worded letter and electing a new sheriff in a couple of years will help the next batch...

Well if there were a friendly Sheriff running and I lived there, I'd vote for the friendly Sheriff. If he won, then that certainly couldn't hurt.

Strongly worded letter? Well, its been said that the pen is mightier than the sword so... I supposed that couldn't hurt either.

Will it help?

Who knows.

[ZENemy]

The absolute last thing in the world the Police want is Marijuana legalized. Half their excuses for groping people, searching people, breaking down doors, cavity searching people, is because, "Sniff sniff....I smell something..." They can violate a person any which way just because, "They smell something."

They don't want that power taken away from them. So of course the local and state authorities will gleefully participate in any of these federal attacks.

Correct.

"Cell in hand" is the new reason to pull anybody over for any reason but it wont work as well as MJ has over the last 100 years.

[Thor]

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24580571/fed-raids-colorado-marijuana-businesses-seek-ties-colombian

Fed raids on Colorado marijuana businesses seek ties to Colombian drug cartels

Colorado marijuana businesses raided this week by federal agents are being investigated for a possible connection to Colombian drug cartels, sources told The Denver Post on Friday.

Three sources, who have knowledge of the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak.

Investigators believe the businesses that were raided are all "one big operation," a source said.

Federal agents swarmed 14 locations, including dispensaries and grow warehouses, in Denver, Commerce City and Boulder County, according to sources. Two homes were targeted.

Investigators believe those targeted in the raids had been actively purchasing area dispensaries and growhouses over a sustained period of time, one of the sources said.

A search warrant obtained by The Denver Post included 10 "target subjects" who were owners of businesses or people connected to medical marijuana businesses.

One of the raided dispensaries — VIP Cannabis in Denver — had applied for state licensing in 2010 but regulators have yet to approve or reject it, said Julie Postlethwait, a spokeswoman for the state Marijuana Enforcement Division, part of the Department of Revenue.

She declined to give a reason for the three-year wait.

Authorities from the U.S. Department of Justice and and Internal Revenue Service raided the businesses and homes throughout the Denver metro area on Thursday, serving search and seizure warrants.

Agents, some of them wearing black ski masks, seized boxes of records and piles of medical marijuana from six dispensaries and six grow houses in Denver.

In Englewood, a home was raided Thursday by armed SWAT team members, according to a neighbor who asked not to be identified. Two of the target subjects, Carlos Solano and Luis F. Uribe, listed the address on business records.

The home is listed by Arapahoe County property records as being assessed for $1.3 million and is near the home of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.

"We didn't know them," said one neighbor. "We never saw the people. It was a huge surprise, seeing guys in full SWAT outfits carrying AK-47s. Usually you see people walking their dogs."

Federal officials wouldn't give specific reasons for the raids, other than to say one of eight federal concerns around marijuana have potentially been violated. Those concerns include trafficking marijuana outside of states where it has been legalized and money laundering.

One of the "target subjects" identified in the search warrant, Denver attorney David Furtado, denies any wrongdoing, according to Furtado's lawyer, Stanley Marks.

"He clearly denies any implication or allegation that he in any way participated in any illegal activity," Marks said Friday, declining to comment further.

Reached Friday, Furtado declined to comment and referred questions to Marks.

State business records identify Furtado as a registered agent — a role often filled by lawyers — for a number of a number of businesses related to medical marijuana.

The principal owner of VIP Cannabis, Luis F. Uribe, has been a central player in a contentious plan to build a large marijuana greenhouse in eastern Pueblo County.

County commissioners in July approved the project on property owned by a company controlled by Uribe, GML. Uribe told commissioners he wanted to invest $6 million in the operation, according to the Pueblo Chieftain.

The plan was for Uribe's company to lease space to a Denver dispensary called Metro Cannabis Inc. that would be involved in building the greenhouse. Nothing has been built on the property yet, county officials said Friday.

County Commissioner Sal Pace, who supported the project as a boost to economic development, said Friday the county's standard criminal background check on project applicants turned up nothing.

"From my perspective, we only want good actors in Pueblo County, and if these are bad actors, I'm glad they got busted," Pace said.

Documents related to the greenhouse plan shed light on the ownership structure of VIP Wellness, which does business as VIP Cannabis, the raided Denver dispensary.

In an application Uribe is identified as owning 90 percent of the company, with Carlos Solano owning the remaining 10 percent.

Another of the men listed in a search warrant as a target of Thursday's raids is 50-year-old Juan Guardarrama, who pleaded guilty earlier this year in Miami in a racketeering case with connections to Colombian and Cuban gangs, according to court records and published reports.

In July 2012, the Miami Herald reported that Guardarrama — who used the street name Tony Montana, after the character in the movie Scarface — was arrested on charges that he worked with gangs of Colombian and Cuban-born jewel thieves to sell diamonds that had been forcibly stolen from dealers.

As part of the investigation, Guardarrama, a Cuban immigrant with deep ties to the Miami area but who was living at the time in Denver, asked an undercover police officer to help him distribute 20 pounds of Colorado-grown marijuana a month in Miami, the Herald reported, citing police records.

Guardarrama also asked the undercover officer to have a business partner in Colorado who had "disrespected" him "taken out," the Herald reported.

A Colorado official confirmed to the Herald that Guardarrama held a valid medical-marijuana employee license. A spokeswoman for Colorado's Marijuana Enforcement Division could not immediately confirm the information for The Post.

As part of a plea deal, Guardarrama was sentenced to 10 years of probation in the Miami case, according to a court record. He also agreed to help authorities with future investigations, the Herald reported.

When investigators raided Guardarrama's apartment, they seized $2 million in jewelry and money, according to the Herald.

[dannno]

"We never saw the people. It was a huge surprise, seeing guys in full SWAT outfits carrying AK-47s. Usually you see people walking their dogs."

Thank God they weren't around..

[Matt Collins]

Because, you know, federal law always trumps state law, right? :rolleyes: :mad:

[surf]

"The Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, the Denver Police Department and state and local law enforcement are today executing lawfully obtained search warrants and seizure warrants," said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the DOJ.sounds like there's a judge that ought to be impeached.

story on the front page of the Seattle Times about the liquor board planning to use underage buyers to check Wa pot stores. http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022364828_potstingsxml.html

some of the reasoning applied is to prevent what is happening in Colorado (I admire and bewilder myself with the hope in this sentiment)

[tod evans]

sounds like there's a judge that ought to be impeached.


Beheaded would suit my fancy.