Federal agents raided at least three medical marijuana dispensaries across the San Diego area in the early hours of 9 July 2010.[1] Green Kross, Unified Collective and Kush Lounge were served federal search warrants in aggressive SWAT-style raids in which as many as 12 people were arrested, and money, medical marijuana and patient records were seized.[1] California NORML’s case record ties the twelve San Diego county arrests to alleged large-scale dealer Joshua Hester, 29, who was himself arrested in West Hollywood.[2] Court papers quoted there say Hester distributed 3,000 pounds of marijuana bought from a major Los Angeles dealer in 2007 and 2008 and was the silent owner of the Downtown Kush Lounge in downtown San Diego and the Green Kross Collective in Mission Beach, the latter co-owned by Joseph Nunes.[2] The other eleven people arrested had varying alleged roles, from runners to a real estate agent accused of helping Hester buy property fraudulently and workers in the collectives.[2]
The raids came as the City of San Diego deliberated an ordinance to regulate local medical marijuana distribution, a step a recent county grand jury had encouraged.[1] They followed multi-agency raids on more than a dozen local dispensaries in September 2009 under Operation Green Rx, and came months after the Justice Department’s October 2009 policy deemphasizing federal enforcement in medical marijuana states.[1]
