Calif. cops forced to return $800,000 in pot after controversial raid ("no apologies", "only more aggression") [View all]
American police have been seizing cannabis for decades, but the tables were turned last week, when law enforcement in a California city was forced to return hundreds of pounds of cannabis to a pot distributor.
Costa Mesa police officers returned the massive shipment of cannabis last week to Se7enLeaf, a cannabis distributor in the city, according to the Los Angeles Times. The authorities had accused the company of illegally operating and seized the cannabis in September of last year.
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“The sad thing is once all this info was shared, there was no apologies. There was only more aggression,” Moussalli said, referencing the city’s attempt to further delay the return of the products. “The police were not happy that no charges were filed. The police were not happy that the product was being returned.”
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September’s raid came after authorities accused High Seas of illegally delivering cannabis through the Se7enLeaf company prior to having a license, according to the LA Times. An undercover Costa Mesa police officer had placed an order through High Seas’ app and received products with High Seas branding that were delivered by a Se7enLeaf employee, according to the Times. Costa Mesa authorities argued this amounted to High Seas and Se7enLeaf illegally selling cannabis, since neither business had a license to deliver to customers.
But Moussalli and his partners at Se7enleaf said that they were only packaging cannabis products on behalf of High Seas — a common practice in the industry — and they were legally using a third-party delivery service to send the products to customers. The city settled the case in February and agreed to return the seized cannabis to Se7enLeaf, and Moussalli agreed to pay for the legal costs of the case, he told SFGATE.
https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/calif-cops-forced-to-return-800k-in-cannabis-19370034.php