Hortifarm Santa Barbara Busted

[SeniorBuzz]

Santa Barbara Marijuana Dispensary Bust

The Santa Barbara Police Department, along with assistance from Santa Barbara County Sheriff's, executed several search warrants in connection with what they claim was an illegally operated marijuana dispensary.

That dispensary, "Hortipharm", is located at 3516 State Street. Narcotic detectives say "Hortipharm" was operating outside the limitations of the "Compassionate Use Act", which provides specific limited immunity from laws prohibiting marijuana sales, possession, and cultivation.

The investigation also allegedly revealed evidence that the owners were laundering money through "Pizza Guru." The authorization for the search and arrest warrants was approved by the District Attorney’s Office and a Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge.

In addition to the Hortipharm dispensary, police conducted search warrants at several other locations

Read more here.

 

[trichrider]

this newscast sounds like the jury has decided that they were guilty at the time of their arrest, before a trial...isn't that grounds for libel if they are acquitted?

 

[the_red_bull]

Hate to ask a stupid question but I'm gonna anyway... what the fuck is a "pizza guru".

 

[vta]

This is bad news! I've been a member of Horti since they opened. They were a model for other shops. I hope the money laundering charge is false for their sake. Josh and Dayli are great parents...this is very sad. The situation in Santa Barbara is getting ugly.

 

[CANNATOPIA]

This is sad.Sending those in CA Luck & Love. I wish them the best.

 

[kannubis]

Troubling times are looming for SB medpatients if this is going to become the norm.

Best of luck to you guys in my effin birthplace. Had to get away myself.

 

[koolace]

Wow sad to hear this I was looking forward to going for the first time. Hope theyll be ok...

 

[JackTheGrower]

The investigation also allegedly revealed evidence that the owners were laundering money through "Pizza Guru."

Is that Take out or Delivery?

 

[JackTheGrower]

Everyone here registered to vote?

 

[Amithia420]

Hortipharm was the first shop I traded my rec for entrance to get "Medical" grade weed, little did i know when walking through the door i would be met with 75$ 1/8th's, GOOD RIDDANCE to them, there was no compassion from them or any SB shop. its disgusting that they would charge top dollar at will and then call themselves compassionate in the same sentence!

Oh and good luck getting a job at one of those shops, unless of course your related or lifelong friends with shop owner, just annoying to see them tout themselves as community builders then do little to improve the community around them.


/rant over!

 

[roughnice420]

Maybe they weren't perfect, but hortipharm was pretty cool, a nice classy place for a pot shop, and it takes balls to run a dispensary...we all know that...fucked up the cops raided them, it's a plant after all, regardless of whether you make money at it or not...

 

[vta]

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/jun/16/cops-release-hortipharm-arrest-and-seizure-details/

Hello, and thank you to all of our supporting commentors here. My name is Joshua Braun, and for those who don't know me, I was one of the founders of Hortipharm, and the Executive Director of the collective when it was raided. Last week I was released from County Jail after six days of incarceration stemming from these raids. It has been an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least, but I want you all to know that I am in good spirits, and absolutely confident in my defense. I hope I can say the same for my co-defendants. I love all you guys, and I will do what it takes to see to it you don't pay for mistakes you did not make!

During my stay with the County I was able to squeeze a few moments into my busy schedule there to think of how something like this could happen after all the extraordinary steps we went through as an organization to ensure the highest level of integrity and transparency for our patients, my co-workers, and the community at large. As this is an ongoing investigation, I will not speculate publicly as to the answer to this question. All I will say is that if more could have been done to ensure compliance, it would have been done. We set out to create a model dispensary, and despite recent events, I humbly hold my head high as I consider the work put in by our Horti team a complete success in this regard. It pains me greatly to see the public humiliation and criminal charges that have been put on my co-workers, who dutifully carried out their jobs with the utmost integrity. Equally so, it devastates me to see what they did to my innocent wife, Dayli, who is not involved at all with the collective. Her strength over the past week was inspirational. A bail hearing was set for Monday to reduce the excessive bail set for us, but an unfortunate "mistake" that sent us to the Santa Maria Courthouse instead of the SB Courthouse, coupled with a court furlough on Wednesday, kept society safe from us until late Thursday evening when our $1,000,000 bail was reduced to release on our own recognizance. I have yet to be informed as to why a charge with a bail schedule of $20k-$60k reached such astounding heights, or how, specifically, we were "outside the scope of the compassionate use act," but over time those details will emerge and the case against all employees and volunteers of Hortipharm will be vigorously defended.

Regarding the allegations of money laundering through Pizza Guru, there is simply no truth to them. The prosecutor has informed me through my counsel that they have developed evidence that Pizza Guru was "not an ongoing concern," and rather a shell through which we would route skimmed funds from Hortipharm. All one needs to do to learn that this is patently false is to go sit at Guru for an hour from 7-8pm or so. The lines speak for themselves--Guru's fresh, local, and organic ingredients, along with our sustainable business practices and vegan and gluten free specialties have helped to raise the bar for pizza in Santa Barbara. I am proud of my wife, and her involvement in this hot mess is unconscionable. For her, Pizza Guru is a mission to provide better diet alternatives to those who care how they feed their body.

I regret to inform our patients that one of the conditions of our release was that Hortipharm is not to reopen until the outcome of the trial. That stipulation, coupled with the new storefront collective ordinance, effectively marks the end of Hortipharm. Thank you all for your loyal support over the past five years, and I hope that when Cannabis becomes legal in November all you displaced patients will regain access to quality medicine. In the meantime, if you haven't already, come give Pizza Guru a try. Though our bodies are innocent until proven guilty, our finances are not. Law enforcement has frozen each and every personal and business account we hold, and we can use the support of our community to help rebuild what they have unnecessarily crushed, and to pay for the defense we will require to see this through to the end.

Any patients who would be interested in supporting us at trial through letters or testimony can email me at 3domfighter@cox.net. Even opponents of the Compassionate Use Act can feel free to email me your questions, concerns, comments or complaints. I'd love to hear from all of you, and I will miss the amazing things we did together as an organization over the past five years.

Keep up the good fight in Peace and Light!

Yours Truly,
Joshua Braun

He left another comment

I can't contain myself from commenting on one aspect of this story--I do not believe the accusation regarding the theft of electricity, nor would I condone it for any reason. The tenant who lived in that home is a peaceful, honorable man and I strongly doubt he would never do such a thing.

 

[vta]

Follow up story..Link above

Following last Friday’s raid of the HortiPharm Caregivers medical marijuana dispensary on upper State Street — as well as busts at a number of residences and other locations — Santa Barbara police have finally released information about what exactly was booked into evidence during the operation.

According to police spokesperson Lt. Paul McCaffrey — whose department was the lead agency in the investigation — detectives seized 32 pounds of cut, dried, and processed marijuana; 2.23 pounds of hash; 500 mature marijuana plants, averaging four feet in height; 120 immature plants, averaging 12-18 inches in height; and more than $90,000 in cash. Numerous bank accounts have also been seized, said McCaffrey, but police have not yet begun the process of sifting through those.
Photo Gallery

HortiPharm Bust Suspects

Enlarge photos | View thumbnails

McCaffrey also reported that two of the houses searched — one at 5423 Santa Rita Road in Lompoc, the other on Almond Avenue in Santa Barbara — were allegedly being used as indoor grow operations. The owners had purportedly installed sophisticated irrigation, lighting, and venting systems that kept the grows' odors contained to the houses.

The owner of the Almond Avenue house, said McCaffrey, had rerouted the main electrical line from a nearby power pole directly to the residence, bypassing the meter. Because of the large amount of equipment inside running 24 hours a day, McCaffrey estimates that “several thousand dollars of electricity was being stolen from the electric company.”

While most of the people in custody were apprehended at their residences, Joshua and Dayli Braun were tracked to and arrested at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Goleta.

 

[Hammerhead]

I hate to here when anybody get busted but come on guys stop stealing electricity. There is no need for a legitimate establishment to be stealing anything.

 

[vta]

I hate to here when anybody get busted but come on guys stop stealing electricity. There is no need for a legitimate establishment to be stealing anything.

I can't contain myself from commenting on one aspect of this story--I do not believe the accusation regarding the theft of electricity, nor would I condone it for any reason. The tenant who lived in that home is a peaceful, honorable man and I strongly doubt he would never do such a thing.

I know Josh....and I'll take his word over LEOs any day.

 

[Hammerhead]

VTA so was there not any theft of electricity as reported? If that is true how are any of us going to know whats real and whats fabricated. It's a shame that they feel the need to add false accusation's. Most people who read that and are going to think he did what was reported. It's not hard to verify it theft of electricity accured. The money laundering is more serious and all I can say is I hope his books are in order. I agree with you VTA I just hope he has his ducks in a row and can prove he is innocent.

 

[vta]

an update...check out these cop tactics..

UPDATE, 4:15 p.m.]: A medical marijuana patient from Ventura County who frequents HortiPharm Caregivers spoke with The Independent about his firsthand experience during the dispensary’s raid this morning. According to the eyewitness — a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times who wishes to remain anonymous — he arrived at HortiPharm sometime between 10:30-10:45 a.m. and was greeted by a person at the front desk.

After allegedly handing the person his medical marijuana card and driver’s license and waiting a couple minutes for what he assumed was verification of his membership, the witness was let into the shop's main room. There, he said, the door was closed behind him and the man behind the front desk introduced himself as a Santa Barbara City police officer.

The officer purportedly told the patient that he wanted to ask him a few questions, saying that the police were gathering information on HortiPharm and conducting a “survey.” The officer, said the source, asked if he thought the dispensary was a collective, what legitimacy the owners and operators had as caregivers, and if he himself was a supplier. The line of questioning, relayed the witness, then shifted to more personal inquiries as the officer asked him what he did for a living, where he lived, and so on. The witness also noted that he saw around six officers behind the main counter sniffing marijuana baggies and joking around.

The witness said he was unclear if he was under oath or if his answers were on record. After 5-10 minutes of questioning the witness reportedly asked if he was free to leave, and was told he could. The officer he spoke to, he said, was friendly and cordial throughout the process. The source also said another patient was being interviewed at the same time he was, and that the man asked the officers if he needed to call his wife, who is a lawyer. The officers purportedly told him he didn’t need to.

On his way out of the shop, said the witness, he warned a few patients who were heading inside that police were within, causing everyone to get back in their cars.

 

[real ting]

VTA so was there not any theft of electricity as reported? If that is true how are any of us going to know whats real and whats fabricated. It's a shame that they feel the need to add false accusation's. Most people who read that and are going to think he did what was reported. It's not hard to verify it theft of electricity accured. The money laundering is more serious and all I can say is I hope his books are in order. I agree with you VTA I just hope he has his ducks in a row and can prove he is innocent.

What you said right there is a major problem with the way people perceive news stories. They are far more likely to remember and believe what they first read, whether the person is acquitted or not, they will forever be prosecuted in the minds of many who read the initial news article. This goes for any crime that is hyped in the media, not just drugs.

 

[real ting]

an update...check out these cop tactics..

That only happens just about any time someone is arrested or suspected of a crime. Not the taking over of their establishment, but leading questioning and self incrimination are regularly used by the police. People need to flex their rights in these situations and plead the 5th.

I'm surprised this guys wife was a lawyer and he still stuck around for the questioning...

 

[Hydrosun]

Hortipharm was the first shop I traded my rec for entrance to get "Medical" grade weed, little did i know when walking through the door i would be met with 75$ 1/8th's, GOOD RIDDANCE to them, there was no compassion from them or any SB shop. its disgusting that they would charge top dollar at will and then call themselves compassionate in the same sentence!

Oh and good luck getting a job at one of those shops, unless of course your related or lifelong friends with shop owner, just annoying to see them tout themselves as community builders then do little to improve the community around them.


/rant over!

One more NON GROWER bitching about people going to prison in connection to providing weed to him. Why the fuck didn't you just take your $75 buy some seeds and show us how good your grow is?

Good riddance to the entitled class.

Unless you have improved the community you have no place to talk, and if you had you would feel no need to disparage the NON PRODUCERS like the greedy group you come from.