New York City police took to social media Sunday to tout its seizure of 106 pounds of marijuana, showing two officers proudly holding bags of the dark green buds surrounding by tables covered with the product.
It turns out the shipment came from Fox Holler Farms in New Haven, Vermont, one of dozens of hemp operations that have popped up around the state since the crop was legalized for industrial production. The hemp was headed to Green Angel, a CBD store in Brooklyn.
Now, NYPD is investigating whether its bust was a mix-up.
“It is currently at the lab at this point to make a final determination, was it hemp?” Chief Terence Monahan, an administrator for the NYPD, said at a press conference Wednesday. “The individual had no bill of lading justifying its delivery, so this is all part of an ongoing investigation.”
Monahan said police intercepted suspected drug packages, field tested the contents for marijuana and then arrested the person it was intended to be delivered to, Ronen Levy, the brother of the owner of Green Angel.
Levy said he tried to explain the situation to police, in an interview with ABC7 in New York.
“They read me my Miranda rights, they proceeded to take everything out of my pockets, and cuffed me,” he said. “The officers ignored me, they didn’t want to hear anything. Everything that came out of their mouth was ‘It’s narcotics, it’s narcotics, we tested it and its narcotics.’”
Back in Vermont, Jahala Dudley, the owner of Fox Holler Farms, said she received a message Saturday that her shipment had been seized. Dudley contacted NYPD’s 75th Precinct in an effort to provide them with any further information they may need to verify the contents.
Later that day, she received another message from John Dee, who runs Green Angel, saying he just had his appendix removed and was unable to pick up the packages. Instead, his brother, Levy, went to pick up the hemp, where he was promptly arrested.
“So, my mind’s blown,” Dudley said. “It’s Saturday, my buyer’s brother — who has nothing to do with this industry — is arrested and I feel like I have no control.”
Levy was released without bail Sunday and is now facing a trafficking charge with a court date for Nov. 19, according to Dudley. ABC7 said the brothers are considering legal action against the police and FedEx.
“Meanwhile, our 106 pounds of hemp is sitting with the DA’s office downtown in New York City,” Dudley said.
Dudley said she brought nine boxes to the FedEx location in Williston on Friday to be shipped. Whenever she ships her hemp, Dudley said she includes in each box THC test results proving the hemp is not marijuana. She even had the Williston police confirm the contents’ legality.
“I guess one of the rumors going around, and I don’t know if it’s true or not, is that the NYPD are saying there was no paperwork in the boxes,” she said, relieved that the Williston police had a report on the packages.
Dudley provided VTDigger with a copy of that report, which states a FedEx employee called the Williston police thinking someone was trying to ship marijuana. The report says an employee opened two boxes, found the paperwork and determined “the police was not going to seize it.”
“Both boxes contained paperwork explaining the shipper as a registered VT Cannabis Hemp grower and had Oct 2019 laboratory paperwork stating the THC content of 0.06%,” the report reads.
On Monday, a friend texted Dudley a screenshot of the officers touting their success on Facebook and Twitter, where two NYPD officers showed off what appears to be close to 100 large bags of marijuana.
The department’s Facebook post has gathered over 2,000 comments as of Wednesday afternoon, most of which are critical of the confiscation, with some calling the seizure an act of theft.
To remedy the situation, Dudley said she’s been in contact with Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy’s office, the state’s Agency of Agriculture and the Williston police department. She said her interactions with Vermont authorities on her hemp production have been “incredible.” She’s working with lawyers from Vermont Cannabis Solutions to clear up the situation.
The sale price of this shipment was $17,500. Green Angel has already paid Dudley, but now the product is waiting for NYPD testing before its released.
Going forward, Dudley said she will be switching to using the U.S. Postal Service, who she said has better protections to get a package back should it be seized. She’s hesitant to start driving the crop herself, fearing she may be the next one to end up behind bars.
“I’m running a totally legitimate business,” Dudley said. “Now, I’m getting paranoid that if I deliver my legal product my buyer, that something bad could happen to me because the authorities are not educated.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont organic hemp shipment leads to arrest of recipient in New York City.