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U.S. NEWS Saturday 26 January 2019

Pot owners plead guilty in unique charges vs. legal business

By KATHLEEN FOODY in several weeks. Senior material collected during
Associated Press Deputy District Attorney December 2017 raids of
DENVER (AP) — The owners Kenneth Boyd said investi- several company proper-
of a Denver marijuana busi- gators found evidence that ties. Several months earlier,
ness pleaded guilty Friday Sweet Leaf’s owners knew the company’s owners told
to drug and racketeering about and encouraged Marijuana Business Maga-
charges and will spend a the illegal sales. Employ- zine that they had 350 em-
year in prison in what city ees would even contact ployees and $60 million in
officials called the first local buyers known as “loopers” revenue.
prosecution of a legal pot to notify them of medical Boyd said the 12 low-level
enterprise in the U.S. marijuana deliveries to dis- employees arrested dur-
A yearlong investigation of pensaries, he said. ing the raids have since
Sweet Leaf’s sales practic- “Once the practice was reached plea agreements
es centered on a practice authorized by ownership, it contingent on community
known as “looping,” where was pushed at the highest service. Two former man-
a customer purchases the In this Dec. 14, 2017 file photo closed signs are displayed on levels,” Boyd said. “It was agers received 30-day jail
maximum amount of mari- the front door to a marijuana dispensary along South Federal sell, sell, sell. This was about sentences in November as
juana that Colorado law Boulevard in south Denver. greed and making money, part of a plea agreement
permits and repeatedly Associated Press and that came from the that required them to co-
returns to the same retailer D.C., that broadly allow Johnson and Anthony top.” operate with investigators.
to purchase more on the marijuana use by adults Sauro will serve one year in Denver police began in- Boyd said Denver prosecu-
same day. Prosecutors be- and a commercial market prison followed by a year vestigating the chain of tors still are pursuing cases
lieve people using the strat- to supply cannabis prod- of parole tied to the drug dispensaries in 2016 after against 10 people accused
egy at Sweet Leaf locations ucts. The majority of such charge and a year of pro- a neighbor of one Sweet of using looping to buy ex-
purchased more than 2 businesses “are reputable bation for the racketeering Leaf location complained cess marijuana at Sweet
tons of marijuana intended and responsible and strive charge. about repeat customers Leaf locations.
for sale on the black mar- to obey our marijuana Aiken, 40, was sentenced visiting the dispensary day The investigation prompted
ket. laws,” Denver District Attor- immediately, and court- after day. Colorado regulators last
The case is unique in that ney Beth McCann said in a room deputies placed him Investigators scrutinized year to clarify rules limiting
Denver authorities charged statement. in handcuffs following the Sweet Leaf’s sales practic- how much marijuana an in-
a pot business in one of Under a plea agreement, hearing. Johnson, 50, and es by using data collected dividual customer can buy
10 states plus Washington, Matthew Aiken, Christian Sauro, 33, will be sentenced by state regulators and in one day.q