Muskegon-Area Federal Medical Marijuana Bust Goes Bust

[XLFD]

Last week a couple of dozen folks in western Michigan were arrested by a variety of police agencies, led by a Federal effort with intel from Ohio.  These included 160 officers from these Federal, State and Local agencies:

• The U.S. Attorney's Office
• The DEA's Grand Rapids and Detroit field offices
• The Department of Justice
• The Kent County Sheriff's Department
• Michigan State Police's West Michigan Enforcement Team (WEMET)
• MSP's State, Sheriffs, Chiefs Enforcement Narcotics Team (SSCENT)
• MSP's Traverse Narcotics Team (TNT)
• The East Grand Rapids Department of Public Safety
• Grandville Police Department
• Grand Rapids Police Department
• The Grand Haven Department of Public Safety
• The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety
• The Oceana County Sheriff's Department
• The Muskegon Police Department
• The Muskegon County Sheriff's Department
• Walker Police Department

 

And these are the mug shots of the ones brought up for justice:

But it looks as if they acted a little too quick.  The US Attorney has filed motions to dismiss the criminal complaints against these individuals.  Now they may eventually come back to charging these ladies and gentlemen for something eventually when they have their drugs in a row, but can you imagine the potential damage that some of these people may face with their reputation for getting arrested and all this negative publicity when they may have been doing nothing more than using medical marijuana within the State's guidelines, or just associating with those that do. 

 

Even if you are against marijuana for any use, you have to wonder about whether this effort deserved such use of police resources, why it resulted in such a confused mess, and whether we will see the wronged citizens fight back against this botched effort that almost makes it look as if the authorities were on the wrong side of the bong.

 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The U.S. Attorney's Office has filed a motion to dismiss a criminal complaint against 27 people believed to be involved in a multi-county marijuana growth and sale operation, saying it needs more time to sort through paperwork.
Last week, authorities announced that 25 of the 27 people had been arrested  following the execution of 28 search warrants in several counties by more than a dozen law enforcement agencies. About 500 pounds of marijuana and assets determined to be drug proceeds were seized in the raids.
But Monday, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan filed a motion to dismiss the criminal complaint against the 27 people.
The motion says that more than 50 police reports about the searches and seizures hadn't yet been prepared and that the U.S. Attorney's Office was still waiting on statements from the witnesses and people who had been arrested.
Additionally, it has to sort through "controlled substances and several hundreds of other items of evidentiary value" seized in the raids.
And there are more than 1,000 "communications" -- like text messages and phone calls -- that were collected during the months-long investigation that must still be transcribed.
The government says it can't do all of that in time to file an indictment against the 27 people and prepare the case for a grand jury review within the next 30 days.
As a result, it has requested that the complaint be dismissed rather than keep the 27 people named in it under the constraint of the court.

All 25 members of the "Medical Marijuana Team" were released from jail last week without having to post bond.
It is likely that the U.S. Attorney's Office would return to the case once the paperwork is taken care of.
In the 60-page criminal complaint, authorities alleged that the operation used a doctor to provide medical marijuana certifications, which they used to justify the sales of hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of marijuana. But the group didn't sell just to patients. Federal investigators say they provided the drugs sold on the street across West Michigan.

http://www.woodtv.com/news/local/kent-county/complaint-against-27-i...

[Willy]

What a monstrous waste of law enforcement time. I could see it if we were talking about hard drugs and a major smuggling operation. What I don't understand is why each local jurisdiction did not arrest and prosecute those individuals who were in their area. That would have divided the work load and spread out the paper work to make prosecution more manageable.

[XLFD]

The colossal problem that enters the picture in these multi-jurisdictional medical marijuana busts is that Federal law says all 'pot' is illegal, and various states including Michigan, says some 'pot' is legal if properly distributed and used.  Even some cities and counties have their own specific rules.  So you have them arrested by state cops and sheriffs (sworn to uphold the state and federal constitution) for federal charges when their own state says there is no crime.