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CLOSING LA POT STORES, ONE RAID AT A TIME
A Plainclothes Team of Narcotics Officers Makes Eagle Rock a Focal Point;
As dusk settled on busy Colorado Boulevard, a squad of minivans and SUVs
pulled
to the curb outside a drab stucco rental that houses one of Eagle Rock's
medical
marijuana dispensaries.
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Plainclothes narcotics officers fanned out. One disarmed a startled
security guard, another covered the door through the sights of a rifle and a
third phoned the shop to announce the raid. A second guard, three
employees and a dozen grim-faced customers filed out, hands in the air.
By the end of the operation, the officers had arrested the Colorado Collective's
owner and an employee and hauled away 40 pounds of marijuana and $17,000 in cash
in large evidence bags.
The raid was the fourth by a new Los Angeles Police Department team that is
spearheading an aggressive push to shut down dispensaries that are illegal under
a city ordinance that took effect four weeks ago.
"This is a high priority for the City Council and a high priority for the
city attorney, so it's a high priority for us," said Capt. Kevin
McCarthy, head of the Gang and Narcotics Division.
The ordinance allowed dispensaries that registered with the city in 2007, when
it adopted a moratorium on new pot shops, to remain open. The rest, which
opened in defiance of that ban, had to close by June 7. City officials say
there were more than 400 illegal dispensaries, but they think most have since
closed.
Asha Greenberg, an assistant city attorney who is overseeing the enforcement
efforts, said she believes that as few as 20 to 30 illegal stores may still be
defying the ordinance. "It's also somewhat of a moving target,"
she said, "because we hear of places open up and then close, we hear about
places that have cut down on their hours and some places that have now turned
into delivery services, so it runs the gamut of these places trying to get
around the ordinance."
In Eagle Rock, which emerged as the epicenter of the neighborhood activism
against the pot-shop explosion, most of the unauthorized outlets that once
ringed the area appear to have closed.
On Colorado Boulevard, the shades were drawn at ABC Caregivers and only the
outline of the letters CNC remained on the glass door at CN Collective on West
Broadway. The building on York Boulevard that had been Northeast
Collective was being refurbished by a hypnotist who plans to open a clinic.
Several dispensaries, among scores that have sued the city to challenge the
ordinance, hope to win a court order that will allow them to reopen. At
the House of Kush on Colorado Boulevard, a printed sign said: "We are
closed until further notice. Sorry for the inconvenience." Organic
Healing Center, also on Colorado, posted a hand-written note: "We are doing
our best and fighting hard to get safe access back for you."
At the Hummingbird Collective on York Boulevard in neighboring Highland Park,
Marty Romero, one of the operators, watched as equipment was carted out and
loaded into a U-Haul. The store, part art gallery, part hippie hangout,
was filled with paintings, books and overstuffed furniture. A Buddha sat
serenely near a glass door with the word "kindness" hand-painted on
it. "We just took off 'love,' 'peace' and everything else, but it
still says 'kindness,' " Romero said. "The vibration was
incredible."
Under the ordinance, the city could seek court orders to close dispensaries and
impose civil fines, but that is costly, ponderous and often ineffective.
Instead, the city attorney's office settled on the bluntest approach: criminal
prosecutions that allow police to confiscate cash and pot and leave dispensary
operators facing up to six months in jail on misdemeanor charges.
The tactic has dismayed medical marijuana advocates. "It seems
ridiculous. These are peaceful people. It seems to me that there's
still reefer madness," said Dege Coutee, who runs the Patient Advocacy
Network. "It doesn't make any sense to just steal the cash and the
herb."
To coordinate the raids, LAPD officials have assembled a team of eight narcotics
officers. The team conducted three busts before the one at Colorado
Collective, making a half-dozen arrests, seizing $7,265 in cash and 43 pounds of
marijuana at Kush Korner II in Wilmington, Nirvana Pharmacy in Westwood and Kind
for Cures in a former Kentucky Fried Chicken store in Palms.
The city is primarily targeting dispensaries fingered by residents who have been
e-mailing between five and 10 complaints a day to atty.medicalmarijuana@lacity.org.
"They are our best source because they are frequently in the
neighborhood," Greenberg said. "Some of these places, if the
LAPD drives up in a marked car, they will close the door and pretend to be
closed."
The afternoon before the raid at Colorado Collective, two undercover officers
walked into the dispensary posing as prospective clients. They filled out
the required paperwork and were allowed to enter an inner room where the shelves
of a long glass cabinet were lined with two dozen jars filled with pungent buds.
The officers bought about $30 worth of pot and, because it was their first
purchase, the "budtender" threw in a free joint.
Within a few hours, the officers had obtained a search warrant from a judge and
convened with the rest of the task force. After a quick briefing, the
officers strapped on bullet-protective vests and helmets and drove to the
dispensary.
Inside, they moved from room to room, finding refrigerators and cupboards full
of marijuana in jars, and tried to persuade Larry Lo, the dispensary's operator,
to open a large safe.
"Larry, you've got to think a little bit here," said Lt. John
King, who supervises the team. "We're not here because we're having
fun. We're here because we've got a warrant to search this place.
I'm going to get into that safe one way or the other. I don't want to, but
I will ruin it if I have to."
Lo was not swayed, so King called for a lock specialist, who arrived hours later
and spent several more drilling into the lock to open it. When the safe
finally popped open, police found it filled with cash and more marijuana.
The seized pot could have a retail value of about $250,000 or more.
Evidence seized by police during such raids could be returned if those arrested
do not face charges or are found not guilty.
Handcuffed and seated on a coach, Lo repeatedly insisted that his dispensary was
registered with the city and allowed to operate.
"There must be a misunderstanding. I can show you the
paperwork," he told King. But King said, "We're here because the
city attorney says you're one of the unfortunate ones whose license is null and
void. You need to take it up with them."
City records show that Lo did register in 2007 at the same Colorado Boulevard
address, although he used the name Southern California Collective. And he
recently notified the city that he planned to continue operating his collective
under the new ordinance. Lo, who spent a night in jail after his arrest,
declined to comment.
Police said the dispensary was on a list provided by the city attorney's office.
Greenberg noted that the collective was operating under a different name and
said the office had received complaints about it, but declined further comment
on the raid.
"That's something we're still looking at," she said.
Pubdate: Mon, 5 Jul 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: AA1, continued on page AA4
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
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