Valley wide unlicensed marijuana dispensary group busted

marijuana-grooupDuring a Valley-wide sting involving a business posing as medical marijuana dispensaries, Maricopa County Sheriff’s detectives arrested 12 people and seized more than $44,000, drugs and other paraphernalia.

Operating under the DBA of Alternative Medicine Group (AMG) they operated several shops around the Valley that sold medical-grade marijuana without a dispensary license or authority from the state.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Detectives and SWAT members served five search warrants on the heavily guarded businesses and homes of the 12 suspects related to AMG and seized:

•    $44,317.00 Cash
•    Eight handguns,
•    55 pounds of medical grade marijuana,
•    20 pounds of marijuana edibles,
•    Five vehicles, safes, televisions, computers and tablets

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said, as part of the investigation his undercover detectives made several buys over the past few months from the locations that were guarded by armed security guards dressed in tactical attire.

“These businesses are trying to make a profit selling a controversial substance and are not following state law,” Arpaio said. “They are damaging legal marijuana dispensaries that have followed the law and been approved by the state.”

The investigation is continuing. Individuals arrested were; Aaron Pomrenke, 22, Nicholas Schmidlin, 34, Jacqulynn Silva, 20, Kent Saeteun, 30, Ryan Howell, 21, Marcus Linsey, 27, David Keith, 25, Mikayla Gallegos, 22, Frank Vizcarra, 25, Justin Poag, 22, Daniell Rodriguez, 22, Monte Morris, 27

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