Search Results: search-warrant (8)

The Native Angeleno

The U.S. federal government on Tuesday took action to shut down 71 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles, where the city council recently voted to ban the cannabis access points altogether.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for Southern California sued three property owners that rent to dispensaries, raided three shops, and sent warning letters to 68 more, enforcing federal law, which doesn’t recognize the 1996 California voter initiative that legalized marijuana for medicinal uses, reports Greg Risling of the Associated Press.
Federal authorities started targeting L.A.’s pot shops almost a year ago; the city council’s own dispensary ban is being challenged in court, and could be overturned by popular vote if a referendum appears on a future ballot. The latest round of letters targets all the dispensaries in downtown Los Angeles and in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, according to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s office in L.A., reports Dennis Romero of LA Weekly.

Gweedopig.com

​Twelve criminal search warrants for marijuana were executed on Wednesday, November 16, at premises in Kalispell, Missoula, Somers, and Whitefish, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana.

The execution of the warrants comes after a year-long investigation into “drug trafficking” activities of a “criminal enterprise” operating in Montana, claims a press release from office of U.S. Attorney Michael W. Cotter.
Four civil seizure warrants for financial institutions in Missoula, seeking an unspecified amount of cash, were also executed, reports KRTV.

Seattle Weekly

​Today’s weirdness comes courtesy of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which quoted one of my “Toke SignalsSeattle Weekly medical marijuana dispensary reviews in the search warrant affidavit for a Seattle collective which was raided on Tuesday.
The review, which was a positive one for Seattle Cannabis Co-Op, was printed in the Weekly back in March. It’s not apparent why the DEA would choose to quote the review in their search warrant affidavit, since none of the alleged improprieties mentioned elsewhere in the warrant were even hinted at in the review.
But there it was to greet me this morning, before I’d even had time to fortify myself with a cup of coffee: “DEA Medical-Marijuana Dispensary Search Warrant Quotes Seattle Weekly Toke Signals Column.”

KOMO News
DEA agent Tuesday morning at Seattle Cannabis Co-op’s location in the Rainier neighborhood

​Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided medical marijuana collectives in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Puyallup, Rochester, and Lacey, Washington, as a coordinated raid swept across the Puget Sound region on Tuesday.

Patient advocates and legal defense groups report that at least nine dispensaries have been raided, according to The Seattle Times. Ben Livingston of the patient advocacy group Cannabis Defense Coalition said he’s spoken with several dispensary owners and defense attorney Aaron Pelley, who confirmed raids were occurring.

“I’m in shock because now I have no pain medicine,” said patient Cameron Christenson outside of Seattle Cannabis Co-op on Rainer Avenue, reports David Rose at Q13 Fox News. “I can think of 100 crack houses in town — why don’t you go raid those?”

Photo: KING 5
Kent Police raid Suzie Q’s, one of the four medical marijuana dispensaries in town, on Wednesday. All four dispensaries in Kent were raided and shut down.

​The repercussions of Washington Governor Christine Gregoire’s failure of leadership — when she vetoed most of a bill that would have legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in the state — continue to reverberate. Police in Kent, Washington served search warrants at all four  dispensaries in town on Wednesday afternoon.

The businesses, all located in the Kent valley, have been the subjects of an “ongoing investigation” for selling medical marijuana to authorized patients, supposedly “in violation of state law,” a city spokesman said, reports KIRO TV.


Graphic: Life Is A Joke

​A deputy was injured as he fell off a cliff Tuesday, pulling another deputy with him and injuring him as well, during a marijuana grow raid in California.

The Kern County Sheriff’s Office Major Violators Unit (damn, they sound important) and the Kern Narcotics Enforcement Team were trying to serve a search warrant for a cannabis grow operation in the remote area of Bald Mountain, in the Havilah, Calif., area, reports KERO 23.
During the hike into the grow area, one of the deputies lost his footing while crossing a large boulder and cliff, officers said.

Photo: Bayou Perspective

​A Colorado search warrant executed Tuesday authorized the seizure of records for more than 300 medical marijuana card holders, including doctors’ recommendations and personal contact information.

The warrant was issued after officers from the Grand Junction Police Department were called out Tuesday to investigate a suspicious odor emanating from a building near the offices of the U.S. Census Bureau, reports Paul Shockley at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
The warrant, signed by District Judge Thomas Deister, allowed for Western Colorado Drug Task Force officers to confiscate records “in order to verify who the current primary caregiver is” for the approximately 308 patient files found inside a large marijuana grow.