$18,000 hemp inventory seized in St. Thomas shop raid
Virgin Islands agents seized about $18,000 in hemp-derived products from Homegrown Bar and Grill's St. Thomas store on 29 April 2025, the retailer alleges. The licensed retailer says the warrantless seizure was uncompensated and is challenging it and the later Act 9072 surrender rule in federal court.
🇻🇮 Little Amsterdam Coffee & Cannabis Lounge, 10 Dronningens Gade, Main Street, St. Thomas · US Virgin Islands
Homegrown Bar and Grill LLC operates Little Amsterdam Coffee and Cannabis Lounge
at 10 Dronningens Gade on Main Street in St. Thomas.[1]It held a valid Hemp
Products Retailer License from the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs
when the raid occurred.[2]On 29 April 2025 agents from the Health Department,
Licensing and Consumer Affairs, the Office of Cannabis Regulation and the Virgin
Islands Police Department entered the Main Street store without a warrant and
without advance notice.[1]The agents seized hemp-derived products from the
retail floor and storage areas, taking what the complaint describes as a
significant portion of active retail inventory.[1]The complaint values the
seized inventory at approximately 18,000 dollars at wholesale value.[1]
The retailer says it applied for a licence, received it and bought products from
licensed wholesalers before opening.[3]Its attorney says hemp-derived
products like those confiscated had been legal under federal law since 2018 and
the territory issued licences to qualified sellers through its own hemp retail
program.[3]The complaint describes the stock as both non-intoxicating and
intoxicating hemp-derived products that were federally legal when purchased and
stocked.[2]The complaint alleges the seizure was made without lawful
authority, without statutory basis and without payment of just compensation in
violation of the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause.[2]The legislature approved a
measure requiring sale of such products only with a Cannabis Regulation licence
and the governor signed it on 23 January 2026.[3]
In February 2026 the business sued the Virgin Islands government, the attorney
general, the health commissioner, the licensing commissioner and the cannabis
office director, saying the products were legal when seized and no compensation
was paid.[3]The federal complaint filed on 19 February 2026 raises Fifth,
Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claims plus a civil rights claim and seeks
declaratory and injunctive relief with just compensation for the seized
inventory.[1]The business says it still holds at least 60,000 dollars in
intoxicating hemp inventory that would be subject to surrender under the new
law.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Value (official estimate)
USD 18,000
Agency type
Police
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis
Setting
Street or public place
Case stage
Under investigation
Sources
VIBE HIGHvibehigh.viHomegrown Bar & Grill sues Virgin Islands government over 2025 hemp seizure
No cannabis weight, plant count or product-by-product breakdown was published; only the complaint's approximately $18,000 wholesale value is recorded, so no kilograms can be recorded.
The submitted article gives only April 2025 for the raid; the exact date of 29 April 2025 comes from the complaint as reported in the second and third opened accounts.
All seizure details come from the business's complaint as reported; no government response or agency statement was included in the opened sources.
No arrests, charges or criminal proceedings were reported in the opened accounts.
No court outcome was reported in the opened sources used for this seizure report.
The additional at least $60,000 in inventory is described as stock still held and subject to future surrender under Act 9072, not seized, and is therefore excluded from the seizure value.
Only the complaint's wholesale valuation is recorded; retail value, laboratory results and testing status were not established in the opened sources.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in St. Thomas Source: The complaint also challenges a new provision requiring retailers to surrender products to the Health Department for storage until regulations issue, without provision for just compensation.
Bengaluru city police seized 46 kg and 486 grams of ganja and 1 litre and 542 millilitres of hashish oil in raids across eleven police-station areas, an operation in which they arrested 34 people. Police valued all the narcotics seized, including MDMA and cocaine, at Rs 12.61 crore and registered cases under the NDPS Act.
U.S. Coast Guard cutters Resolute and Mohawk intercepted a go-fast vessel about 14 nautical miles off Tiburon, Haiti, on 30 April 2024, apprehending four Jamaican men and seizing 3,736 pounds (about 1,694.62 kg) of marijuana valued by the Coast Guard at more than $3.5 million. A federal jury convicted Miguel Orr and Romaine Betty in January 2026, with sentencing scheduled for 22 May 2026.
A 28-year-old woman, Sherifa Petersen, was arrested and charged with introducing narcotics into the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix after officers found two small bags of marijuana in the soles of a pair of sneakers she brought for an inmate. Police were sent to the prison at 1:38 p.m. on Friday, 9 December 2016.
The DEA's Caribbean Division reported that Operation No Plant Left Behind eradicated almost 10,000 marijuana plants from 80 fields across St. Croix in a seven-day sweep ending on 20 June 2008, a record for the island.
