A used car dealership was also raided:
[Owner Walid]Maaliki says the dealership was a victim of the fraud and suspects that several customers purchased as many as six cars from the dealership using the stolen or forged credit cards.
"We didn't do anything wrong. It's just that we have records and copies of all of the credit cards that were used, the people's identities and their pictures," Maaliki said.
So why did they take the pot?
The FBI also raided AMSD on Friday morning after finding a little less than 100 marijuana plants. The FBI's primary focus was CannaMed, but entered AMSD after seeing the marijuana.
Because marijuana is not legal under federal law, the agents confiscated all the plants..... Colorado law allows for the use and sale of medical marijuana, but federal law does not. In this situation the federal agents were obligated to confiscate the marijuana.
The two owners of AMSD tell 9NEWS the plants were worth tens of thousands of dollars and were used to treat more than 100 clients. The seizure effectively shuts the business down.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says more arrests are expected. I hope they also explain why they went after the pot dispensaries. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the feds were going to lay off medical pot raids unless they weren't in compliance with state law. Is the excuse now going to be they're investigating other crimes and just happened across the pot so of course they had to seize it? Stay tuned.
Update: I'm hearing that the dispensary AMSD was subject to the search because it was on the first floor of the building housing the businesses subject to the search warrant. The warrant was for offenses involving tax evasion, real estate fraud, insurance fraud, credit card theft, and id theft -- not drugs. And the DEA wasn't involved.
Update: I just read the 30 page complaint and affidavit. The affidavit says it is in support of 14 Criminal Complaints and 16 arrest warrants.
This is all related to a scam under investigation since October, 2007 by people from the Former Soviet Union who came here on visas. The complaint alleges a criminal enterprise is behind their actions. It alleges they formed phony businesses, got credit cards and loans and didn't pay them back. It was a "bust out scheme."
A "bust out" scheme is a fraud in which the identity and credit line of a business are used to obtain loans and goods with no intention of paying for the money or merchandise. During this investigation, it was determined the J-l students, referred to as "straw buyers," are recruited by the criminal enterprise and provided an instant credit history through a process called "credit piggybacking.
Total loss: $80 million through use of 700 straw buyers.
This had nothing to do with medical marijuana. There's no mention of drugs or medical marijuana in the Complaint or affidavit. The dispensary just happened to be in the same building at which they were executing search warrants.
AG Holder should direct the FBI to return the pot to the dispensary -- and the patient records they seized. If the dispensary was not in violation of state medical marijuana law and it was just "in plain view" by FBI agents investigating misconduct related to other persons and not the dispensary, under Holder's criteria, it should be returned.