Federal agents raided five locations in Oakland, El Sobrante and San Leandro on 26 September 2007, shutting down Tainted Inc., a maker of marijuana-laced candies and foods.[1][2] Agents arrested manager Jessica Sanders and couriers Michael Anderson and Diallo McLinn on conspiracy charges, while owner Michael Martin was charged as a fugitive.[1][2]
Hundreds of edibles and 460 plants
The searches covered Tainted’s factory on 61st Street in Oakland, its indoor grow on 40th Street, Martin’s home in El Sobrante and the homes of the other three in Oakland and San Leandro.[1][2] Agents seized hundreds of marijuana-laced products, including chocolate bars, cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, barbecue sauce and energy drinks, plus about 460 marijuana plants, a handgun, cash and a GMC truck.[1][2] Investigators said the company grew from cooking butter for truffles into an enterprise supplying cannabis clubs in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver and Amsterdam, ordering almost four tons of chocolate in two years and selling items at 2.50 to 20 dollars each.[1][2]
The Chronicle noted the case resembled the previous year’s Beyond Bomb raids in the East Bay, a separate marijuana-treats operation.[2] A magistrate released the three arrested workers on bond and ordered them back to court on 19 October, warning them that federal law bars marijuana even under California’s medical law.[2]
