| Photo: Nicholas Iovino/Wicked Local |
| The owner of Pinky’s Famous Pizza on Main Street, Medford, Mass., was arrested and charged with possession of 250 pounds of marijuana. |
A pizza shop owner in Medford, Massachusetts is facing drug trafficking charges after police claimed they found what they described as “more than $750,000 worth” of “high-grade” marijuana in his pickup truck last week, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Police said after getting a tip that owner Nikita Yanakopulos was scheduled to receive a
large shipment” of marijuana last Friday, August 26, in Everett, they began surveillance of him, reports Peter Schworm at the Boston Globe.
After followed him around Friday as he drove around Everett in a white pickup truck, officers said they saw Yanakopulos that morning in a parking lot loading cardboard boxes into the back of his pickup before driving off, according to court records.
Officers tailed him to a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, where they arrested him. Police had obtained a search warrant based on the allegation that the boxes contained marijuana. They found 11 cardboard boxes with 213 heat-sealed bags containing a total of 250 pounds of pot.
“These are troubling allegations into the suspected trafficking of over three-quarters of a million dollars of marijuana by a local business owner,” said Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.
Police said they seized the truck, three cellphones, and $2,366 in cash in the arrest. Yanakopulos indicated he did not want to speak to officers during the booking process.
| Photo: KTLA News |
| What authorities describe as a “drug smuggling boat” was found near the 250 pounds of marijuana on the beach near Point Mugu State Park. |
Police are investigating how 250 pounds of marijuana ended up scattered along a beach near Point Mugu State Park in Ventura County, California.
Ventura County fire crews were first called the scene after a report of gasoline containers floating on the water and on the beach near Big Sycamore Canyon Road, reports KTLA News.
Authorities did find a dozen large containers filled with gasoline. But that’s not all they found — also on the beach were numerous bricks of marijuana and scattered clothing items, according to the sheriff’s department.
| Graphic: ACCTech |
A new institution of higher learning is opening in Seattle. The Academy of Cannabis Culture and Technology is scheduled to officially open on September 7.
ACCTech plans to offer courses and seminars on Washington’s medical marijuana laws, as well as a range of classes providing patients with professional instruction on cultivating their own medicine and cooking with cannabis.
The Academy didn’t waste any time getting things started — it’s already held its first seminar before officially opening its doors. On August 27, Seattle attorney Kurt Boehl educated medical marijuana patients on how to comply with Washington state’s complex medical marijuana laws.
| Photo: NBC Bay Area |
You should have been there, man. Marijuana lying everywhere on the street for the taking, and no cops around.
San Jose, California police said a white truck illegally carrying marijuana crashed and turned over on its side near Oakridge Mall early on Wednesday, scattering large bags of weed through the intersection as the driver shagged ass out of there on foot.
Several motorists and pedestrians who were lucky enough to be at the scene ran out and grabbed most of the marijuana and took off before police arrived, reports Mike Rosenberg of the Silicon Valley Mercury News.
| Photo: Petoskey News |
A 61-year-old New Zealand housewife who lost a bag of cannabis was arrested when she showed up to reclaim it as “lost property” from the local police station.
The bag, containing 19 separate grams of marijuana wrapped in tinfoil, a cannabis pipe and a cellphone, was found at a ferry terminal in Picton on August 16, reports AFP.
After the person who discovered the bag of weed turned it over to police in the South Island town, the cellphone rang and a male caller asked about the marijuana’s whereabouts. The officers informed him it was at the Picton police station.
| Photo: KING 5 |
| Dispensary owner Marcus Searls wants $1 million for each of the 15 times he said he was forced to have sex with a Grays Harbor Sheriff’s deputy. |
Dispensary Owner Wants $1 Million For Each Time He Was Forced To Have Sex With Deputy
A man who opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Grays Harbor County, Washington has filed a multimillion-dollar federal claim, alleging that a male sheriff’s deputy threatened him with jail to extort sexual favors.
Marcus Searls of Elma, Washington said the deputy was on duty when some of the sexual encounters took place — and even that the two had sex on the hood of a patrol car. (I think I’d ask $2 million for that time.)
| Photo: Benton County, Washington |
| Gotta love Sheriff Steve Keane for speaking truth to power. |
‘Put the money where the problem is’
~ Sheriff Steve Keane
From time to time, a public servant says something so obviously true, so resonantly sensible, that it’s startling. Yes, it’s kind of sad that we’re startled by the truth, but it’s also great that there are people out there willing to lay it on the line.
Today’s hero is Steve Keane, sheriff of Benton County, Washington.
In a lunch meeting with Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, when the subject of controlling gang violence came up, Sheriff Keane told the A.G. it’d be nice if some money set aside for marijuana eradication could be used for gang prevention so they can “put the money where the problem is,” reports Paula Horton of the Tacoma News Tribune.
| Photo: Truth of Success Blog |
| Retired U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, LEAP: “The war on drugs has put blacks behind bars for drug offenses at more than 10 times the rate of whites” |
Group Joins Police Officers In Calling For Legalization
Blacks In Government (BIG), a group representing the interests of African-American government employees at the federal, state, county and municipal levels, overwhelmingly passed a resolution at its national delegates meeting last week calling for an end to the failed and racially biased “War On Drugs.”
The resolution, which will be delivered to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, calls for “alternatives to incarceration that may, in part, include a model to regulate and control the distribution of some drugs.”
The resolution pointed to the words of Maryland State Police Major Neill Franklin and U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, both members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of police, judges, prosecutors and prison wardens who support legalizing and regulating drugs.
BIG and LEAP noted that African Americans constitute 53.5 percent of all persons in prison because of a drug conviction, despite the fact that blacks are no more likely than whites to use drugs.
| Photo: Alaska Hemp |
| “Hey, I think I smell something…” |
A press release from the Alaska State Troopers proudly unveiled the results of a three-year(!) study which, not shockingly, determined that the odor of marijuana may be associated with the presence of marijuana.
Now, stop it. Maybe Alaska State Troopers (AST) don’t have much to do; I’m sure their lives could use a little more excitement. And they have all those “federally forfeited illegal drug proceeds” to spend on, well, something.
The troopers used the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Justice Center to analyze three years’ worth of marijuana grows which they busted. The study analyzed 200 marijuana grow searches conducted by Alaska State Troopers covering 2006 to 2008.
| Graphic: Cheeba.com |
They’re calling it the industry’s very first marijuana-based search engine.
Companies looking to target America’s multi-billion dollar marijuana industry have often had a hard time reaching potential customers online, because ad networks like Google AdSense and Facebook have been none too cannabis-friendly.
The big guys have arbitrarily removed ads for supposedly “promoting drug use” or just for featuring an innocent little pot leaf.
Enter Cheeba.com, the latest push from the Medical Cannabis Network (MCN), a marijuana-based search engine which, according to the company, “creates online advertising opportunities never seen before for marijuana-related businesses.
“While ad networks like Google AdSense seem to flat out ban companies from reaching out [to]the cannabis community, Cheeba is stepping in to give the green light for 420-friendly online advertising,” the company said in a Monday press release.