Marijuana Candy Makers Sentenced To Federal Prison

[Cozmo]

The owner and several employees of a business that produced marijuana-laced foods and drinks for medical marijuana clubs were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday.

Senior U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen of Oakland sentenced business owner Kenneth Dean Affolter, 39, of Lafayette to five years and

10 months behind bars as well as a $250,000 fine.

Affolter first was indicted in March 2006 on charges of conspiracy and manufacturing and distributing marijuana after DEA agents raided his home and production facilities, seizing marijuana plants and products, more than $150,000 in cash and several firearms. A witness-tampering charge was added in June.

He pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, admitting he had controlled and managed several marijuana-growing sites in Emeryville and Oakland where plants were grown and turned into edible products such as "Munchy Way" candy bars, designed to look like Mars Inc.'s Milky Way bars; "Pot Tarts," designed to look like Kellogg's Pop Tarts; and "Trippy" peanut butter, designed to look like Unilever's Skippy product.

The products were distributed to medical marijuana dispensaries across several Western states; patients say Affolter's "Beyond Bomb" line of products were appetizing ways of taking their medicine. Medical use of marijuana is legal under California law but remains banned by federal law.

Several of Affolter's employees were charged.

Amy Teresa Arata of Oakland and Jesse Monko of Walnut Creek each pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy count, agreeing to serve

18-month prison terms.

Arata was sentenced Thursday and will start serving her sentence May 1; Monko was sentenced Friday and will start serving his sentence May 2.

Jaime Alvarez-Lopez, Elizabeth Ramirez, Teresa Rojas, Camilo Ruiz-Rodriguez, Barbara Alvarez, Nathan Woodard, Maria Alarcon-Romero and James White each pleaded guilty earlier to misdemeanor marijuana possession.

Ruiz-Rodriguez was sentenced in October to eight months in prison, while Alvarez-Lopez, Ramirez and Alvarez each was sentenced in January to one year in prison. Alarcon-Romero in February was placed on a year of pre-judgment probation, while Woodard was sentenced Friday to two months in prison and will start serving his sentence April 19. Rojas is scheduled to be sentenced Friday and White is scheduled to be sentenced March 23.

It was unclear late Friday to what charge Robert Blackwell has pleaded guilty; he's scheduled to be sentenced March 23.

Source: InsideBayArea.com
Author: Josh Richman
Contact: jrichman@angnewspapers.com
Copyright: 2000-2006 ANG Newspapers
Website: Inside Bay Area - IBA - Home

[SemperAltus]

Bullshit

[HappyKitty]

Here's a lil more info on this. I apologize if someone else posted it. -

from - San Francisco Gate

Lafayette man pleads guilty in pot-candy case
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, March 2, 2007


(03-02) 14:06 PST OAKLAND -- The ringleader of an Oakland group that made marijuana-laced candy and soft drinks resembling popular confections was sentenced today to 70 months in prison, authorities said.

Kenneth Affolter, 39, of Lafayette pleaded guilty in September to a single count of conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana for making doctored treats that authorities said were packaged for shipment throughout the West Coast.

Affolter admitted that under the product name Beyond Bomb, he made a range of pot-laced treats with names like Buddahfingers, Munchy Way, Rasta Reece's, Puff-a-Mint Pattie, Keef Kat, Stoney Ranchers, Puffsi, Trippy, Pot Tart, Budtella and Toka-Cola. At a hearing today in Oakland, U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen also ordered Affolter to pay a $250,000 fine and placed him on four years of supervised release.

The case was the latest pitting federal officials against medicinal marijuana advocates.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, marijuana is illegal regardless of why someone uses it and no matter what form it takes, especially marijuana candy products that mimic mainstream candies and are attractive to youths.

But angry medicinal marijuana users have said that the raids proved that the DEA and other law-enforcement agencies are running roughshod over local and state laws that allow for medicinal cannabis use.

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, which allows the use of marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation. Despite the law, authorities -- from the California Highway Patrol to the DEA -- have regularly pounced on local marijuana-growing operations in the Bay Area.

One of those raids was on March 16, 2006, when drug agents searched two adjoining warehouses at 1055 and 1071 Yerba Buena Ave. and at 3960 Adeline St. in Emeryville.

Investigators learned that a $3,913 PG&E balance for a month's period covered all three locations and was billed to Affolter, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent William Armstrong wrote in an affidavit.

Affolter told Oakland police officers who responded to a silent alarm at one of the Yerba Buena warehouses in February 2006 that "he made soaps and candles," agents wrote.

Investigators also searched Affolter's Lafayette home and a location on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.

During the raids, investigators seized about $100,000 in cash, 11,692 rooted marijuana plants, 17,736 unrooted "clone" plants, marijuana-growing equipment, three weapons, an electronic money counter and hundreds of sodas and candy laced with marijuana, authorities said.

Yet Affolter, in a monitored telephone call to his parents from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, boasted that the DEA "got a lot of money, but they didn't get it all!" Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Wagner wrote Thursday in a sentencing memorandum.

In the same phone call, which took place shortly after his arrest, Affolter told his mother, "I am financially taken care of" and discussed spending "a couple of years" traveling the world, Wagner wrote.

Citing Affolter's apparent access to "significant undisclosed financial resources," the federal prosecutor urged the judge to impose a $500,000 fine.

A number of Affolter's former employees, who are codefendants, have also been convicted in the case.

Amy Teresa Arata of Oakland and Jesse Monko of Walnut Creek both admitted to performing supervisory roles in Affolter's marijuana operation. Each pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy counts. On Thursday, Jensen sentenced Arata to 18 months in prison; Monko received the same sentence today.

Nathan Woodard was sentenced today to two months in prison.

Jaime Alvarez-Lopez, Barbara Alvarez and Elizabeth Ramirez pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana offenses. Each was sentenced in January to a year in prison.

Camilo Ruiz-Rodriguez was sentenced to eight months for a misdemeanor marijuana offense.

Last month, Maria Alarcon-Romero was placed on probation for a year.

Teresa Rojas will be sentenced on March 9, and James White and Robert Blackwell are scheduled to be sentenced on March 23.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

[IshmarRodriguez]

Those weapons could be legal rifles or shotguns, or they may have permits for them. Nothing wrong with keeping a weapon in your house to keep you safe from burglers.

These guys weren't criminals. They just got treated like criminals. The "save the children" approach was used and they never had a chance after that.

Stupid press has to make it sound that "candy and soda = children, because children love sweet stuff!". Forget the 1 billion dollars a year spent by adults on chocolates for holidays like valentines day. These laced medical chocolates and soda were made so people would enjoy taking their medicine. Somebody dying with aids would probably love to drink a soda rather than shove 10 horsepills down their throat.

Sorry I'm ranting and going off :(

[samiam420]

i whent to mard gras in new orleance and there where people selling marijuana candy so of cores i bought a shit load and ate it all it tasted like bud but it did do shit to me i think it was probaly fake but thay were very convensing thay had a van that had like a weed leaf paint job and it said high times on the side well any ways it was total bullshit

[xDarkLightx]

hahaha....I love the names of all the products.

[Pinch]

That's a shame but I'm going to go out on a limb here (as usual) and say the unpopular thing......wtf were they thinking by keeping guns and huge cash together with their mj & mj based products......that's just fucking stupid on their part & they created their own misery.

Ditto.. and I'm not going out on a limb.. idiots.