cannabisnews.com: Bungled Alibi Puts DEA on $10 Million Trail





Bungled Alibi Puts DEA on $10 Million Trail
Posted by FoM on January 21, 2000 at 08:58:10 PT
Mike McPhee & Marilyn Robinson Denver Post Staff
Source: Denver Post
A young woman who lived in Denver's LoDo district fumbled her story at the Canadian border two weeks ago, leading federal agents on a wild treasure hunt that has produced vast amounts of drug money at every stop.To date, more than $10 million, mostly in $20s, has been seized, including the largest amount ever taken in Colorado.
The border stop triggered events ending in the suicide of the woman's boyfriend in Kansas last Friday, a death that made public an undercover federal drug investigation well before agents had finished their work.Federal documents say her boyfriend, Robert Henry Golding, 43, was a kingpin in an operation that sold between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of marijuana a month.Street value is roughly $1,000 a pound, so the operation was netting between $1 million and $2 million a month. Agents refused to say where the marijuana came from."The least organized of all drug trafficking is marijuana," said Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Ron Hollingshead. "Unfortunately, the public snickers about marijuana because it is perceived to be a softer aspect of the narcotics drug trade. But marijuana is still the most used, and abused, drug in America." Mitra Hagh, 26, who claimed Iranian citizenship, paid $13,000 in cash for a security deposit and three months' rent on a unit at the Windsor Condominiums on Larimer Street.She was stopped on Jan. 7 while trying to enter the United States from Canada at Blaine, Wash. Showing U.S. customs agents a Canadian passport under the name Michelle Joseph, she told agents she was bringing in about $1,000 worth of ski equipment and clothes. When agents informed her she had an exemption of only $400, she began to fumble her story, according to Denny Behrend of the U.S. marshal's office in Seattle.Agents searched her Ford Expedition and found $190,000 in cash in a hidden compartment. They arrested her on suspicion of making a false statement. Agents said they found receipts in the SUV that led them to a storage locker near Fort Collins. DEA agents entered the locker last Friday and found 11 boxes, weighing 400 pounds, filled mostly with $20 bills. The boxes, linked to Golding, contained $5,995,525."It took two days to count the stuff," one DEA officer said. The fruits of a five-month investigation were being harvested nicely with plenty more expected when police in Colby, Kan., announced that Golding killed himself when stopped for a traffic violation. In the trunk of the rental car from Denver, police found $3.8 million in various denominations. The driver of the car, Justin Erik DeBusk, was arrested. The investigation also found smaller amounts in bank accounts in Iowa and Pennsylvania.According to affidavits in U.S. District Court in Denver, DEA agents arrested Golding on Aug. 11 in Lakewood after he sold 212 pounds of marijuana to two Aspen residents, Jon Carter and David Zeimer, who were driving a car belonging to Sondra Vickery, all of Maple Lane in Aspen. Golding was driving a car registered to Hector Mondaca of Laporte. All were arrested. The next day, Golding agreed to become an informant for the DEA.But he proved to be a master of disguises and managed to vanish. In Golding's car in Kansas, police found blank Social Security cards, driver's licenses and identification cards from numerous states.Hollingshead said marijuana traffickers are loosely organized, unlike cocaine or heroin dealers."If you've got the money and you find a source who trusts you, you can buy a trainload," he said. "It doesn't go along familial lines or through a cartel. It's more an entrepreneur's-type organization. And the customer base can be highly mobile and evasive." Hollingshead also said the potency - and the price - of marijuana has increased substantially."The stuff that kids were smoking in the '60s was like smoking your broom," he said.Published: January 21, 2000Copyright 1999-2000 The Denver Post. 
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on January 21, 2000 at 17:47:11 PT
Dezinformatzia, American Style
The Soviets learned very early in their brutal and bloody reign the value of pulling the wool over the eyes of the borderline activist by continually telling false information to their public. It was also aimed at their enemies abroad. BS magazine articles and radio programs extolling the virtues of the Soviet state.It was called 'dezinformatzia'. Disinformation.It would seem that Mr. Hollingshead had taken their lessons to heart."The least organized of all drug trafficking is marijuana," said Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Ron Hollingshead. "Unfortunately, the public snickers about marijuana because it is perceived to be a softer aspect of the narcotics drug trade. But marijuana is still the most used, and abused, drug in America." And alcohol isn't a drug, Mr. Hollingshead? And it, not marijuana, isn't the most used and abused drug in America? It sure is the most available.Lies are lies, no matter the language.
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