‘No explanation’ for federal raid on Denver-area pot dealers

[phantom power]

This was some kind of sword rattling, or dick swinging. "Don't get cocky, you marijuana-legalizing mountain-dwelling hipsters, we can still fuck your shit up any time we chose to."

Federal officials raided more than a dozen marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, with some of the targeted outlets saying they were left in the dark as to the reasons why.

The Denver Post reported that no arrests were carried out in the raids, which were carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“They took $1 million worth of plants from his facility,” attorney James Wollrab told the Post following the raid on Swiss Medical in nearby Boulder. “They didn’t leave any instructions, saying don’t replant. There was no court order of cease and desist. No explanation.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told the Post via email that the seizures complied with federal authorities’ pledge to respect the state’s newly-passed law legalizing medical marijuana sales except in cases involving, among other factors, marijuana possession on federal property; distributing the drug to minors, using marijuana sales revenue for criminal purposes and shipping the drug from states where it is legalized to other states.

The raids were carried out six weeks before the state’s first legal marijuana stores were set to open, and one lawmaker and medical marijuana supporter, state Rep. Dan Pabon (D), told KUSA-TV that the raids were a way of separating “bad actors” from legitimate businesses.

“It’s clear that this is a non-nonsense, no-room-for-error regulatory environment,” Pabon said to KUSA. “We welcome federal partnership in protecting public safety and keeping this out of the hands of our children.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/21/no-explanation-for-federal-raid-on-denver-area-pot-dealers/

[NCTraveler]

1. What explanation is needed? nt.

[cleanhippie]

7. Why ISN'T one needed?

[NCTraveler]

9. Is an explanation given in the article?

Who were they raided by? Is it against the law?

[frylock]

12. they were raided by the DEA and IRS with the assistance of local law enforcement

[piratefish08]

2. as long as our prisons are run for profit, the war on (some) drugs will NEVER end

no matter HOW many states legalize it.

[okaawhatever]

3. Bullshit. The explanation is in the warrant and a quick google search. The warrant lists a gentleman

named Juan Guardarramo. After doing a few minutes research, anyone can recognize that the other names are his associates/business partners. There have been a couple of Miami Herald articles on Juan Guardarramo aka Tony Montanta, yes that's his nickname.

Juan is a seriously bad guy who worked for years in international diamond smuggling/theft. A few years ago as part of a larger investigation into diamond heists undercover officers met with him to sell him half a million in stolen jewelry. While there, Juan asked them if the would "take out" his biz partner in the medical marijuana business in Colorado. Apparently the guy had disrespected him. He also asked the undercover guys if they could transport twenty pounds of pot per month from Colorado to Florida. Since this guys diamond theives were from Colombia, it's likely his drug connections pre-date his Colorado operation. When he felt the heat from the investigation he moved to Colorado. One of his business partners tried to burn down their grow house in 2012.
Earlier this year Juan took a plea deal that resulted in 10 yrs for the ten felonies he was charged with in exchange for his testimony as to his criminal enterprise. I'm pretty sure the folks in Colorado should have seen this coming.

Copy of Warrant: Juan is listed on page 9
http://www.scribd.com/doc/186174036/Search-warrant-for-Denver-marijuana-raids

Miami Herald article
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/12/3231019/tony-montana-pleads-guilty-to.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/01/v-fullstory/2877893/tony-montana-bust-is-a-real-gem.html

[randome]

6. Don't expect your post to get much in the way of replies.

Also absent in this thread so far is mention of the fact that local cops were part of the raids, too.

Selling pot does not mean you receive a 'Get Out Of Jail' free card.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[okaawhatever]

10. No kidding. With multiple articles basically using the same meme "Timing coinciding with opening

of recreational facilities" you have to wonder who is behind this. Add to that the lack of easily attainable information and multiple posters saying the same anti-Obama/Holder/DEA/Federal government thing and it seems like a Koch type operation. They're certainly promoting a state's rights argument. (from the comments i've seen). The guy is bad news and anyone who thinks the cartels aren't trying to worm their way into the mm business is deluded.

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. "The cartels." Really? Let's not speak loosely here.

One guy in one warrant may be an organized crime type, but what does that have to do with "the cartels," by which I presume you mean the vaunted Mexico drug trafficking organizations? Loosely conflating an organized crime figure with "the cartels" is cop-talk propaganda.

Whether organized crime might try to horn in on a profitable industry is another issue. Of course, the profitable industries organized crime tries to get its fingers in are by no means limited to medical marijuana, or drugs, or even illegal activities. So, saying that organized crime may be trying to get in on the action is pretty meaningless.

Of course, the real answer to that problem is removing the profits by legalizing marijuana nationwide. And I mean so I can grow my own (which I currently do under California's medical marijuana law). I don't buy pot from anybody, friendly hippie or mean mobster.

[msanthrope]

21. My suggestion is that you read the warrant. Money Laundering for the cartels is pretty serious. nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. The Justice Department has listed reasons it will go after medical marijuana.

One of them is violent criminality. Another is exporting pot out of state.

If that is indeed the case here, this could be a case of them drawing bright lines. About a dozen different places were hit, I think; we'll have to see what the story is with the rest of them.

I don't know that the presence of local cops signifies much, other than that they are there to assist the feds. That was very often the case in California raids. They needed local cops to keep angry crowds away from the DEA thugs. I guess we'll see if any state charges are filed, but these were federal warrants.

[msanthrope]

22. Money Laundering for larger interests--read the Targets and Offenses sections of the Warrant. nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

23. I would if I could find it. The link provided above seems to end before that.

There are two other links, but they seem to be the same thing, only upside down.

Where are you seeing this? And does it say anything about Mexican cartels?

[msanthrope]

29. The first link in post #3 is the Warrant. You want to go to the last couple pages

and read who the targets are and the subject offenses.

[tridim]

26. It's just one last "Blame Obama and Holder for everything!!!!111" post...

before Cannabis is legalized after the elections.

Screw the haters and their half-truths, we can move forward without them.

[randome]

27. Don't know about cannabis getting legalized across the board.

But I suspect that the states that do experiment with this will find unanticipated problems like this one. It remains to be seen whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[TheKentuckian]

11. The warrant seems to be all about cultivating marijuana and not about Juan being a bad man.

I deem your defense a distraction and a lame excuse.

[okaawhatever]

14. His history, not the warrant makes him a bad man. A short history of

According to authorities, this Cuban immigrant rose from being a small-time bookie in Sweetwater to becoming a key player in a criminal enterprise that finds targets for international jewelry thieves and reintroduces their stolen goods into the market

Last week, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged Guardarrama with more than a dozen felony counts, from racketeering and money-laundering to dealing in stolen property and soliciting first-degree murder.

His first run-in with police was a disorderly intoxication arrest in 1990. A year later, he was arrested and later convicted after a road-rage incident on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. According to court records, Guardarrama got out of his car and threatened the other driver with a semiautomatic pistol.

In 1994, he was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol. Three years later, he was arrested and convicted of assault, extortion and illegal bookmaking. Records show Guardarrama had threatened to kill a man who owed $13,500 in gambling debts outside a Mexican restaurant in Sweetwater.
Authorities say he coordinated two groups of jewelry thieves that have operated in South Florida and across the country since at least 2005

“Thefts have increased in the past few years, and many blame the economy,” he said. “South Florida has been hit especially hard, mostly because of the Colombian gangs.”

Guardarrama worked with these groups of thieves who live in Colombia but travel to Miami and other U.S. cities to commit robberies, authorities say. He was one of a few fences who helped the thieves follow traveling diamond dealers who sell their wares in the Seybold building, according to the sworn testimony of convicted thieves.

“Sometimes a person who is in the jewelry business, Mr. Juan Guardarrama, called us to tip us about the victims,” Andrés Felipe Lema told authorities under oath. “We followed jewelry/diamond representatives around, waiting for them to stop at gas stations, hotels, restaurants, jeweler stores or pawn shops. At those places we attacked them.

I don't think Guardarrama is worried about being called a bad guy. Based on this incident I think he would prefer it.
The trial, scheduled for October, promises to be entertaining. Last week, when a prosecutor presented the charges against Guardarrama, he made sure to mention his infamous nickname.

Upon hearing the name “Tony Montana,” those in the courtroom burst into laughter.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/01/v-fullstory/2877893/tony-montana-bust-is-a-real-gem.html#storylink=cpy

If you don't think someone who has people assaulted by Colombian gangs for a living is a bad guy, I wonder what is. Do his previous convictions for extortion, bookmaking, racketeering, money laundering, dealing in stolen goods, soliciting first degree murder, threatening someone with a semi-auto over a road rage incident, any of that put him in a bad light for you?

[TheKentuckian]

15. I'm not saying Juan is not a very bad fella, I am saying that the warrant is about weed not him.

[okaawhatever]

16. Oh, correct. The general theme of the articles is that "There isn't a reason for the raids", and

while the DEA/IRS/State & Local cops may not want to tip their hand due to a larger investigation, the warrant lists Juan which gives away the rest of the story. Also, since Juan is in jail I have to wonder if they aren't going after some Colombians or other actors. They have Juan in jail, they didn't arrest anyone at the local dispensaries, and from the warrant and other info it seems they're looking for information. I did notice in one portion of the warrant they directly call it a drug trafficking operation and in other parts they're looking for the person responsible for the lease or the purchase of the building. Sounds like they're trying to go up the food chain and not down. I hope so, If the Colombians or other drug cartel is involved it won't be easy for the locals.

[Comrade Grumpy]

24. Again with the loose "cartel" talk.

This guy sounds like hoodlum who associates with other hoodlums of the same ethnicity. That doesn't make them a drug cartel; it makes them a criminal gang. Especially when the common usage of drug cartel now refers to those bloodthirsty Mexican drug trafficking organizations. It is not helpful to keep slinging around terms like that.

[okaawhatever]

25. Juan Guardarramo is Cuban. Born there and moved here when he was a child or baby. His connections

to the Colombians seem pretty well established. There is testimony in court that one of the two teams he oversaw was the Colombian team. They were headquartered in Colombia and came up here to do the thefts. There are several stories to read, but I believe if anything he was a money launderer for them for years. (Based on the money laundering and racketeering charge).

[Comrade Grumpy]

28. So, nothing to do with Mexican drug trafficking organizations, the "cartels."

Tony Montana sounds like a run of the mill organized criminal.

I hope you will quit using "cartels" in this context; it is misleading.

[okaawhatever]

30. Awww C'mon. You don't remember Tony Montana? That was the name of Al Pacino's character in

Scarface. Tony Montana is Mr. "Say hello to my little friend." Such an awesome performance by Pacino in that film.

I don't think of Mexico first when it comes to Cartels. Colombia would probably outrank them. Certainly the Medellin cartel. I just hope if Guardarrama brought the Colombians in when he moved to Colorado the Feds get them with this investigation. The last thing that town needs. That's all i'm saying

[RainDog]

13. It makes sense the operation was targeted

because it falls within the unacceptable provisions.

[msanthrope]

20. Thank you for bringing the facts. I wonder how much pot one has to ingest before one

believes that the government shows up and conducts a raid, and there's no explanation on the Warrant.

[seveneyes]

4. Sanctioned Kneecapping

Compliments of the executives in charge.

[gtar100]

5. Maybe because legalization exposes the DEA as a worthless agency

and they feel slighted by Colorado. The only real crime they fight is self-induced. The criminalization of drug use created the drug lords, the smuggling, the underworld of the drug trade, and then they, the DEA, turn around and act like the good guys protecting us from the evil they made happen. Here's a thought, put all those resources and work hours into solving real crimes.

Just to be clear, drug abuse is a real problem. But throwing people into prisons is not the solution.

[RandiFan1290]

19. Probably weeding out some competition

Can't have the wrong people making roots when there is big $$$ to be made