Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jan 2016
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2016 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Sadie Gurman, the Associated Press

TRAFFICKERS SEEK SAFE HAVEN IN COLO.

Pot Grown Legally Serves As Cover for Illegal Sales

DENVER (AP) - Seeking a safe haven in Colorado's legal marijuana 
marketplace, illegal drug traffickers are growing weed among the 
state's sanctioned pot warehouses and farms, then covertly shipping 
it elsewhere and pocketing millions of dollars from the sale, 
according to law enforcement officials and court records consulted by 
The Associated Press.

In one case, the owner of a sky diving business crammed hundreds of 
pounds of Colorado pot into his planes and flew the weed to 
Minnesota, where associates allegedly sold it for millions of dollars 
in cash. In another, a Denver man was charged with sending more than 
100 pot-filled FedEx packages to Buffalo, N.Y., where drug dealers 
divvied up the shipment. Twenty other drug traffickers, many from 
Cuba, were accused of relocating to Colorado to grow marijuana that 
they sent to Florida, where it can fetch more than double the price 
in a legal Colorado shop.

These cases and others confirm a long-standing fear of marijuana 
opponents that the state's much watched experiment in legal pot would 
invite more illegal trafficking to other states where the drug is 
still forbidden.

One source is Colorado residents or tourists who buy retail pot and 
take it out of state. But more concerning to authorities are 
larger-scale traffickers who move to the state specifically to grow 
the drug and ship to more lucrative markets.

The trend also bolsters the argument of neighboring Nebraska and 
Oklahoma, which filed a lawsuit in late 2014 seeking to declare 
Colorado's pot legalization unconstitutional, arguing that the move 
sent a tide of illicit weed across their borders. The Obama 
administration last month urged the Supreme Court to reject the suit, 
saying that the leakage was not Colorado's fault.

No one knows exactly how much pot leaves Colorado. When illegal 
shipments are seized, it's often impossible to prove where the 
marijuana was grown. But court documents and interviews with law 
enforcement officials indicate well-organized traffickers are seeking 
refuge in Colorado's flourishing pot industry.

"There's no question there's a lot more of this activity than there 
was two years ago," said Colorado's U.S. attorney, John Walsh.

Some in the legal industry say police have exaggerated the problem 
and put unfair scrutiny on people who legally grow pot on behalf of 
patients. Lawmakers last year limited unregulated pot growers to no 
more than 99 plants in an effort to crack down on those selling untaxed pot.

The federal government allowed Colorado's experiment on the condition 
that state officials act to keep marijuana from migrating to places 
where it is still outlawed and out of the hands of criminal cartels. 
Federal authorities acknowledge that both things are happening, but 
say that, because the state is trying to keep its industry tightly 
regulated, there's no reason to end the legal pot trade.

The pot industry also acknowledges the criminal activity and insists 
it is doing all it can to keep legally grown weed from crossing state 
lines. Among other safeguards, Colorado law requires growers to get a 
license and use a "seed-to-sale" tracking system that monitors 
marijuana plants at every stage.

Many of the illicit growers come from elsewhere, never obtain a 
growing license and "don't even attempt to adhere to the law," said 
Barbra M. Roach, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement 
Administration's Denver field division.

"It's like hiding in plain sight," she said.

Authorities in Washington state, which also allows recreational 
marijuana, have noticed more marijuana leaving the state. But more 
reports are coming from Colorado, which has the nation's most robust 
commercial market and an international reputation for producing 
premium, highpotency pot.

"It's a brand name now," Roach said.

Jason Warf, head of the Southern Colorado Cannabis Council, said 
people are "coming from out of state, buying products from licensed 
stores and being arrested on their way home."

That "is really hard to curb," he said. "We can't essentially 
baby-sit adults and their behavior."

The Colorado Department of Revenue's marijuana-enforcement division 
cites shops if pot is unaccounted for, but "after it's sold, we have 
very little control what happens to the marijuana," Director Lewis Koski said.

Police agencies seized nearly 2 tons of Colorado weed from drivers 
who had intended to take it to 36 other states in 2014, the year 
legal pot shops opened, according to the Rocky Mountain High 
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a federally funded drug task force. 
By comparison, they seized less than a ton in 2009.

U.S. postal inspectors seized about 470 pounds of Colorado pot from 
the mail in 2014, up from 57 pounds in 2010, according to the task 
force, whose findings are based on voluntary submissions from law 
enforcement agencies and are largely anecdotal.

Some cases have comic overtones, like when a Wyoming patrolman 
discovered 7 ounces of high-grade weed in trick-or-treat bags the day 
after Halloween, or when police in northern Colorado seized stuffed 
animals full of marijuana destined for Florida.

Other operations are more sophisticated, like the one in which 
authorities say 32 people used sky diving planes and posed as 
licensed medical marijuana caregivers and small-business owners to 
export tens of thousands of pounds of pot grown in Denver warehouses, 
usually to Minnesota. The organization made more than $12 million 
over four years, according to a state indictment.

When they busted illegal pot farms in southern Colorado in September, 
state and federal agents found 28 guns, more than 1,000 plants and 
$25,000 in cash.

A local UPS facility intercepts about 50 pounds of pot headed out of 
state each week, said Todd Reeves of the Colorado Drug Investigators 
Association. "We don't have the resources," he said, "to be able to 
go after every single one of these cases."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom