Over the course of last week, 42 people were arrested by federal agents and dozens of police departments in one of the largest actions ever taken against Colorado\u2019s illegal cannabis market.<\/p>\n
The sweeping wave of arrests started May 22 and lasted for three days. In a statement on the operation<\/a>,\u00a0the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Jason Dunn called it \u201cone of the largest black market marijuana enforcement actions in Colorado history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cColorado has become the epicenter of black market marijuana in the United States,\u201d said Dunn. \u201cIt\u2019s impacting communities, it\u2019s impacting neighborhoods and it\u2019s impacting public safety. But this investigation may be just the tip of the iceberg. We will therefore continue to pursue black market growers and prosecute them to the full extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Justice noted that, during the last two years, law enforcement had already conducted over 250 searches. A new wave of searches started last week with arrests commencing on Wednesday. By Friday, 42 alleged cannabis offenders were in custody facing a variety of state and federal charges.<\/p>\n Twenty-six of the defendants will face charges from the state of\u00a0Colorado<\/a>, and the remaining 16 are looking at federal prison. Some of those facing federal charges had more than 100 plants. If convicted, they will face an automatic\u00a0mandatory minimum<\/a>\u00a0sentence of five years in prison. But worse, the maximum could see them serve a 40-year sentence.<\/p>\n The implications of the crackdown are clear: In the age of legal cannabis, there are still people who could spend the rest of their lives in prison over a nonviolent marijuana cultivation offense. According to the DOJ, some of the defendants facing federal charges for cultivating more than 1,000 plants are looking at a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison.<\/p>\n Most of the enforcement actions happened not too far from Denver. Just north and east of metro Denver, Adams County was home to 120 of the search warrants executed. Just south of the metro area, Arapahoe County saw 63 search warrants executed. Those two counties made up the bulk of the search warrants executed last week, as 70 additional searches took place across six other counties.<\/p>\n The searched netted a massive haul. Federal agents and their supporting local police seized over 80,000 marijuana plants from all the separate actions. In addition, law enforcement seized 4,500 pounds of \u201cfinished marijuana,\u201d or dried cannabis herb ready to consume. At roughly $2,000 a pound on the underground market, the finished pounds alone could be worth $9,000,000. Add to that whatever those 80,000 plants would have produced and you\u2019re talking a massive amount of money.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, Colorado is no longer known for its beautiful mountains and scenery,\u201d said DEA Denver Division Special Agent in Charge William T. McDermott in the statement. \u201cNow it is known for marijuana and other illegal manufacturing and distribution of controlled substances.\u00a0 This investigation highlights that law enforcement and prosecutors are committed to the rule of law and ensuring Colorado returns to its former standing.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to all the pot they seized, the feds are looking\u00a0to make big money off the forfeitures attached to the charges<\/a>. That includes 41 homes. Given that\u00a0Zillow<\/a> puts the median home price in Colorado at $380,000, the value of the real estate seized is worth way more than the weed.<\/p>\n Law enforcement also seized $2,160,776.89 in cash, 25 vehicles and three pieces of jewelry, all with forfeiture actions pending.<\/p>\n Mason Tvert led Colorado\u2019s effort to legalize cannabis and currently serves as the VP of communications at VS Strategies<\/a>. He didn\u2019t want to speak directly to last week\u2019s action, since he didn\u2019t have all the details, but he said law enforcement action against unlicensed cannabis activity comes as little surprise, as state and federal officials have been very clear about their intentions to continue enforcing the laws that prohibit it.<\/p>\n Tvert was also quick to note this all wasn\u2019t legal cannabis\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n \u201cThis type of illegal, clandestine cannabis activity is not the result of Colorado\u2019s legalization law,\u201d said Tvert. \u201cIt is the result of other states failing to adopt laws like Colorado\u2019s. If every state in the U.S. regulated cannabis similarly to alcohol, as Colorado is doing, illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking operations would become as rare as illegal moonshining and bootlegging operations.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong>\u00a0do you think the federal government should arrest people for growing cannabis?<\/p>\n The post The Feds Crack Down on Colorado\u2019s Underground Cannabis Market<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Over the course of last week, 42 people were arrested by federal agents and dozens of police departments in one of the largest actions ever taken against Colorado\u2019s illegal cannabis market. The sweeping wave of arrests started May 22 and lasted for three days. In a statement on the operation,\u00a0theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1143,50,21,9799,90,4432,2176,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35647,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35646\/revisions\/35647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What the Feds Found<\/h4>\n
Cannabis & Federal Asset Forfeiture<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: The Feds Crack Down on Colorado\u2019s Underground Cannabis Market<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"