DEA and IRS agents arrested the owner and the manager of the Local Patients Cooperative in Hayward on 12 December 2006.[1] Shon Matthew Squier, 34, and Valerie Lynn Herschel, 23, both of Hayward, were charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana and distribution of marijuana.[1][2] Agents also executed five federal search warrants at the Foothill Boulevard facility, two Hayward homes and two cars.[1]
The searches turned up indoor marijuana grows, hundreds of plants, marijuana-laced cookies, brownies, popcorn, pies and candy, two inert grenades, cash and luxury vehicles including a Mercedes, a Hummer and motorcycles.[1] The complaint said the cooperative claimed to serve only medical patients while selling to people with no medical condition; a Hayward police inspection had found over 200 pounds of marijuana on site.[1] The dispensary was one of two in Hayward, and the city had ordered it to close for holding more marijuana than local rules allowed.[2]
A year-long investigation
The DEA and IRS began the investigation about a year before the raid, learning that Squier owned the distribution centre while Herschel managed it.[1] Prosecutors said the site ran a sophisticated indoor grow with multiple rooms, kept hundreds of pounds of processed marijuana on hand, and posted uniformed-looking security at the door.[1] The defendants faced up to twenty years in prison on the conspiracy and distribution counts.[1] They were due in federal court in Oakland the next morning.[1]
