Major Drug Ring Busted in San Diego

Federal drug enforcement officials in San Diego announced on Thursday that they had brought down a large scale drug trafficking organization that delivered methamphetamine and cocaine to the streets of San Diego. Most of the alleged traffickers were arrested on February 20th, but some of the suspects remain at large. Twelve of the defendants arrested on Wednesday resided in north county San Diego, including seven in Vista, two in San Marcos and three in Oceanside.

“This organization was distributing multipound quantities of methamphetamine in our cities, and making a huge profit,” said William Sherman, acting special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. Sherman

Sherman made national headlines last year when a University of California San Diego engineering student was held in a DEA cell for days without food or water. The student, 24-year-old Daniel Chong, was nearly dead when federal agents found him making noise five days after he had been handcuffed inside his cell. Chong was arrested along with eight others when DEA agents raided an apartment where Chong and his friends were smoking marijuana. Agents claimed that the apartment contained weapons, psychedelics, mushrooms and prescription medication.

After Chong was discovered severely dehydrated and malnourished, Agents took him to the hospital where he spent three days in the intensive care unit. It took more than a week and a half and the story reaching national news before the DEA finally issued a public apology. Special agent William Sherman, the official responsible for the detention facility, said he had the "deepest apologies" for the way Chong was treated.

Public reaction to the incident largely condemned the DEA in support of Chong. Barbara Boxer demanded that the Department of Justice issue a thorough investigation of the incident. Representatives Darrel Issa and Duncan Hunter demanded a congressional investigation and a complete account of the DEA's detention policies. Chong's attorneys issued a statement that they were going to sue the DEA for $20 million.

Marijuana Dispensary Owner Gets 8 Years

California has allowed the use and exchange of marijuana for medical use for well over a decade now, but the federal government still considers marijuana to be a Schedule I narcotic, a group of drugs that includes dangerous substances like heroin and meth. The dichotomy between state and federal law creates a complicated situation for medical marijuana users and the people supplying them cannabis. As a result, you end up with federal cases where marijuana dispensary owners get sentenced to years in prison for operating as drug dealers.

One of the most high-profile and recent cases to showcase this phenomenon involves 32-year-old Joshua Hester, a San Diego resident who secretly operated several medical dispensaries in the downtown area. While no state authorities brought up charges against Hester’s marijuana operations, federal authorities launched an investigation that involved wire taps and surveillance in 2008. Two years later the feds indicted Hester and ten of his accomplices for their roles in violating the Controlled Substances Act.

Judge Irma Gonzalez of the U.S. District Court downtown stated that Hester was not being punished for his simple involvement with medical marijuana, but because he profited so highly from the operation. “You used state laws that allow people to benefit from these cooperatives for your own benefit,” Gonzalez said in court. Hester was ultimately handed an 8-year sentence for his role in the operation. Laura Duffy, the prosecutor in the case, said that the defendant exemplified the type of marijuana dealing that the feds were targeting in San Diego.

Despite Duffy’s claims that the federal government is only prosecuting dispensaries who operate as for-profit drug dealing businesses, 95 percent of medical marijuana dispensaries in the area have been effectively shut down. Advocates for medical marijuana claim that the feds are targeting all dispensaries, not just the most egregious ones. Federal law gives no special status to marijuana operations that properly follow California law regarding the exchange and use of medical cannabis.

William Sherman, head of the DEA office in San Diego, said that he never witnessed any legitimate use for the dispensaries in San Diego. Out of the hundreds of investigations the DEA has conducted on dispensaries in the last few years, “None of them have been true collectives or true cooperatives that are in the business of compassionate care,” Sherman said after the court hearing. “They are all in the business of making a profit. This is a big business.”

San Diego and the War on Drugs

In an effort to curb the use of recreational drugs considered too harmful for casual consumption, federal, state and local governments fight a seemingly never-ending battle against producers, dealers and possessors of drugs in a phenomenon labeled "The War on Drugs."  Major battles of this war are fought on the border between the United States and Mexico. Drug cartels funnel large amounts of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal substances through underground tunnels and other clandestine delivery systems. As a result, Mexican and American cities along the border find themselves embroiled in perpetual battle to keep drugs off the streets. San Diego state and federal courts are filled with drug cases, and the prisons are packed to the brim with traffickers and buyers.

Defense attorneys in San Diego like me see the results of the war on drugs in our offices and in court all of the time. Cases range anywhere from simple posession to full on trafficking and production in federal court. Drugs can already have a devastating impact on children and families, but when the justice system gets involved, things can get even worse. A drug conviction can result in difficulty finding a job, getting an apartment or keeping custody of children. It's important to get the best defense possible if you are ever arrested for posession, trafficking or dealing. Don't talk to the police until you have a lawyer by your side to defend you.

In San Diego, the war on drugs is in conflict with California state law when it comes to cannabis, creating a lot of confusion for medial users who think they are following the law. Medical marijuana was made legal in California in 1996 when voters passed Proposition 215. The law made posession and cultivation of marijuana legal for ill patients who were recommended cannabis by their doctor; however, marijuana remained a Schedule I substance according to the federal government's Controlled Substances Act. As a result, the DEA and other federal authories still routinely prosecute individuals for marijuana posession in San Diego.

If you're arrested by the DEA or other federal agencies for marijuana, flashing your medical card won't do you any good. You need to find a lawyer who has experience with federal drug cases.