It's not like anyone was defrauding investors, laundering drug money, trading with forbidden nations, price rigging, stealing pensions, stealing wages or anything like that.

"I’m going to try to keep myself as occupied as I can while I’m away. Try to get an online MBA, read a lot, be as prepared and sharp as I can be to go back into the working world"

He will make some good contacts. Maybe he can go into banking after, learn to purchase politicians BEFORE they investigate you. Lot less chance of going to prison, and not just the modest salary he made working with the mmj patients

stated that they had gotten too large & they were charged with manufacturing marijuana. I can't find a link to an actual indictment but chances are they were growing more plants than they were allowed to have, which seems insane considering how many lawyers they had involved.

If anyone has anymore information on this please send me a link, I'm curious.

2,000 plants in a rented warehouse far exceeded any legitimate business use they had as legal dispensaries.

The Feds aren't busting the California shops that stay within the law of that state, they bust the greedy growers that try to use the law as a shield and front for illegal grow operations.

They weren't running a medical marijuana business, they were running retail stores, period.


Those are the type of operations getting busted in California. So many here think the Feds are busting every medical marijuana store in California, they just aren't.

On Edit:

Link:http://www.justice.gov/usao/cae/news/docs/2013/12-2013/12-13-13Davies.html

something instead of just screaming holy Batman the evil DEA is at it again.

Thanks for the info.

throw nearly ten million families into to the street in foreclosure, use the trust placed in you to defraud millions, and they send you a big fucking check every month for committing the very crimes we sent people to prison for in the 80's...Donations.

vs

out of control horticulture for which three go to prison.

Here's a thought. Use the feds to look for Islamic Terrorists who are going to blow up runners in Boston instead of busting people who are growing too much marijuana and causing shortages in the potato chip supply.

They weren't a threat. It is nothing more than beating up on the weaker and less powerful to make your government look big and important. Like taking food stamps away from hungry people. Until you come up against someone your own size, like Russia, and they tell you to fuck off. Then you don't look so big.

Tough life, being a bully.

If only they would make that case against big pharma and health insurance companies.

2,000 plants doesn't exceed the needs of Californians with Medical Marijuana cards.

It was they that called in the Feds.

NT

of why they do not bother to register to vote

they see both parties as wasteful liars

Would you stop the DEA's raids on Oregon medical marijuana growers?

"I would because I think our federal agents have better things to do, like catching criminals and preventing terrorism."
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-9003-six_minutes_with_barack.html

And yet people go to prison....

translation: real people want weed - pharmaceutical companies want control of weed. Phamaceutical companies have clout.

People are quitting cigarettes finally and tobacco companies would only have to substitute weed for tobacco....pre-rolled packs of cigs, just like in the beginning.
Of course prison industry, big pharma...shit, there is no way these huge political donors are going to be cut out of that gravy train.

What have we allowed (misdirection by MSM has sure helped) our govt. to become.

We desperately need "A WAR ON GREED."

...which lets the DEA declare any Medical Marijuana business in CA in violation of state law.

It doesn't authorize pot businesses, whether they grow more or less than six plants.

Instead, of discussing businesses, the law refers to "collectives."

http://www.canorml.org/medical-marijuana/patients-guide-to-california-law

Too much money at stake in the prison industrial complex.

As we continue to fill our prison cells with pot smokers.

It's like prison authorities purposefully make it hard to get through your prison sentence.
It's lead in to extra-judicial punishment.

Hope & Change.....Sure thing. Big fucking Liar, like all politicians.

Looking forward to all the lies coming in next 20 months.

an excellent candidate for President Obama's sentence commutation program.

and there are no victims. This is all political, playing with peoples' lives.

The Government screwed him over "Big Time" because he was gainfully employed in a "Legal" (In that state) trade.

It was local and state officials that called the Feds in on him.

Duncan and his partners tried to hide a regular grow operation behind the medical marijuana law, as greed got the better of them.

What he was doing was breaking the California laws concerning medical marijuana and how it is sold first.

It was local and state officials that called the Feds in on him.

Duncan and his partners tried to hide a regular grow operation behind the medical marijuana law, as greed got the better of them.

Good luck with those background checks.

Sucks.

Here's what the US DoJ says:

... “Matthew Davies, a Stockton businessman with an MBA, set out to build a lucrative marijuana empire in the Central Valley, even though he knew that his conduct was illegal under federal law,” said U.S. Attorney Wagner. “He persisted in expanding his businesses even after local jurisdictions took action against them, and even operated one storefront business in Sacramento shortly after its prior owner had been arrested by local authorities. Despite all the claims about nonprofits and ‘cooperatives’ our investigation has shown that, in the end, it was all about the money” ...
Stockton Man Pleads Guilty to Operating Multiple Marijuana Storefronts and Cultivation Sites
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 31, 2013
Docket #: 2:12-cr-255-GEB

Current Federal policy, as I understand it, is that the Federal government is not interested to prosecute marijuana operations that are legal under state law, even if illegal under Federal law, but that operations that are illegal under both state and Federal law may find themselves subject to Federal enforcement

Matthew Davies' operations seem to have fallen into the latter class -- a fact which could not have escaped notice, since local authorities kept shutting them down

Co-defendant Robert Duncan, 30, of Stockton, pleaded guilty on September 21, 2012 to marijuana cultivation

Last edited Tue Mar 4, 2014, 06:17 AM - Edit history (1)

Make friends with all the bankers, CEOs and "rich kids" in there and stay close to that group.













Oh.






Never mind.

United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner
Eastern District Of California
Stockton Man Pleads Guilty To Operating Multiple Marijuana Storefronts And Cultivation Sites
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 31, 2013

Docket #: 2:12-cr-255-GEB




SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Matthew Davies, 35, of Stockton, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Court Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. to 10 felony offenses arising from his operation of multiple marijuana businesses and cultivation sites, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. Davies pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, two counts of manufacturing marijuana in connection with two separate indoor marijuana grow operations, and seven counts of distribution of marijuana.

According to the plea agreement, Davies, along with co-defendant Lynn Farrell Smith, 62, of Stockton, owned and operated various marijuana businesses. One of the two marijuana manufacturing operations was a sophisticated indoor growing facility involving thousands of plants in a warehouse on Vickie Lane in Stockton. Stockton Police Officers responded to a burglary-in-progress call and found more than a dozen workers inside trimming the plants. A federal investigation began and a search warrant was executed at that location.

According to court documents, the investigation revealed that in addition to the marijuana growing operations, Matthew Davies and Lynn Smith owned and/or operated seven marijuana storefront businesses in Stockton and Sacramento between 2009 and 2011. The businesses generated substantial revenues.

Profit and loss statements obtained during the course of the investigation showed that, for example, the Pathways Family Health Cooperative in Stockton generated more than $2.2 million in marijuana sales in less than a year. It was closed in 2010 by the City of Stockton. Similarly, records show that the Central Valley Caregivers Cooperative, which Davies and Smith owned and operated in Stockton, generated more than $4.5 million in gross sales in 2011 before federal search warrants were executed in October of that year. The MediZen business in Sacramento generated $2 million in gross sales of marijuana during that same time period. During 2011, Davies also purchased a 50 percent interest in Port City Wellness in Stockton (which was briefly open between September and October of 2011) for approximately $200,000. During 2011, Davies and Smith also managed and operated River City Wellness and R & R Wellness (renamed Sacramento Patient’s Group), and purchased and operated Twelve Hour Care dispensary. All three of these marijuana businesses were in Sacramento. They also briefly operated an eighth marijuana business in Manteca before it was closed by the City of Manteca.

“Matthew Davies, a Stockton businessman with an MBA, set out to build a lucrative marijuana empire in the Central Valley, even though he knew that his conduct was illegal under federal law,” said U.S. Attorney Wagner. “He persisted in expanding his businesses even after local jurisdictions took action against them, and even operated one storefront business in Sacramento shortly after its prior owner had been arrested by local authorities. Despite all the claims about nonprofits and ‘cooperatives’ our investigation has shown that, in the end, it was all about the money.”

Sentencing before Judge Burrell is scheduled for September 27, 2013. The plea agreement filed today, if accepted by the court, would call for a sentence of five years in prison. The government intends to seek a substantial fine, and the plea agreement reflects that Davies has already voluntarily forfeited $100,000.

U.S. Attorney Wagner also noted that the sentence to be recommended in this case reflects the fact that Davies timely expressed a willingness to plead guilty, saving the government significant expenditure of resources, and is commensurate with other sentences recently imposed on similarly situated defendants in this district. Earlier this month, a Stockton man was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted at trial of operating a warehouse marijuana grow and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, and a resident of Elk Grove was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in owning and operating a marijuana business that was later sold to Davies. In recent months, a South Lake Tahoe man was sentenced to five years in prison for operating a marijuana business and cultivation sites, a Bakersfield man got four years in prison in connection with a storefront marijuana operation, and two Florida men got five years in prison each for a large indoor marijuana grow in Shasta County.

Co-defendant Smith pleaded guilty on January 18, 2013, to similar felony charges relating to the manufacturing of marijuana and six counts of distributing marijuana from storefront businesses in Stockton and Sacramento. Co-defendant Robert Duncan, 30, of Stockton, pleaded guilty on September 21, 2012 to marijuana cultivation.

The case against Davies, Smith, and Duncan was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the San Joaquin County METRO narcotics task force, and the Stockton Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard J. Bender is prosecuting the case.

You don’t stop people from doing what they want to do, so forget about making it unlawful. You’re just making criminals out of people who aren’t engaged in criminal activity. And we’re spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can’t win! We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor. It’s stupid.”
Morgan Freeman, here.

And I agree with him. $40 billion a year wasted on this, and the Democrats just helped cut $8 billion in food stamps, or $90 a month from 850,00 families over 10 years, here. Doesn't sound like much when one reads about it in the paper over dinner, perhaps.

As long as people have theirs, I suspect they feel the same way about these fellas.

http://tokintimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Stupid+Cops.jpeg

n/t

Way to ruin this man's life for no good reason whatsoever...

I just did.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/free-robert-duncan/czRrS2hr

NT

Going to jail for something you're doing legally in California is an outrage.

But at least this terrible menace is off the streets.

But little people? They're to be stepped on.

There is no good reason for him to go to prison and President Obama needs to pardon him right now. It would also be a welcome distraction from the Ukraine nonsense.