Home Delivery Pot Services Thrive

Police Say Upscale Drug Ring Includes Vermont Marijuana

(AP)  In a city where you can get just about anything delivered to your door — groceries, dry cleaning, Chinese food — pot smokers are increasingly ordering takeout marijuana from drug rings that operate with remarkable corporate-style attention to customer satisfaction.

An untold number of otherwise law-abiding professionals in New York are having their pot delivered to their homes instead of visiting drug dens or hanging out on street corners.

Among the legions of home delivery customers is Chris, a 37-year-old salesman in Manhattan. He dials a pager number and gets a return call from a cheery dispatcher who takes his order for potent strains of marijuana.

Within a couple of hours, a well-groomed delivery man — sometimes a moonlighting actor or chef — arrives at the doorstep of his Manhattan apartment carrying weed neatly packaged in small plastic containers.

"These are very nice, discreet people," said Chris, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition only his first name be used. "There's an unspoken trust. It's better than going to some street corner and getting ripped off or killed."

The phenomenon isn't new. It has long been the case around the country that those with enough money and the right connections could get cocaine or other drugs discreetly delivered to their homes and places of business.

But experts say home delivery has been growing in popularity, thanks to a shrewder, corporate style of dealing designed to put customers at ease and avoid the messy turf wars associated with other drugs.

"It's certainly been the trend in the past 10 years in urban areas that are becoming gentrified," said Ric Curtis, an anthropology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in the drug culture.

The corporate model — and its profit potential — were demonstrated late last year when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it had taken down a highly sophisticated organization dubbed the Cartoon Network. DEA agents arrested 12 people after using wiretaps and surveillance and making undercover buys.

Authorities estimated that since 1999, the ring made a fortune by delivering more than a ton of marijuana, some of it grown hydroponically — without soil — in the basement of a Cape Cod-style home on 10 acres in Vermont, where an informant reported the smell of the crop was overpowering.

The dealers, working out of a roving call center, processed 600 orders a day — from doctors, lawyers, Wall Street traders — even on Christmas, investigators said. Authorities refused to give names, but in one conversation overheard last October, a courier boasted about the ring's upscale clientele, according to court papers.

"We know comedians. We know celebrities," the courier said. "So you might meet a rapper, a singer. We go to a lot of people."

One former customer named Lucia, a 30-year-old employee at an entertainment cable network, recalled blatant deals done at the company's Manhattan headquarters. Executives and employees alike would pool their orders as if they were buying lunch together, then await the arrival of a courier, Lucia said.

The cost was $60 for one plastic case holding two grams of marijuana — a steep markup, but worth it because of convenience and quality, she said.

"It was kind, kind bud," she said. "Yummy stuff."

The emphasis on customer service and satisfaction was evident at one stash house, where agents found more than 30 pounds of marijuana in plain view, already packaged for holiday delivery, court papers said. The packages featured the drug ring's cartoon character logo and the greeting, "Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Cartoon!"

The operation's alleged mastermind, John Nebel, "should have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company," said his attorney, Steve Zissou.

Instead, Nebel, who is awaiting trial, could get a minimum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted. Prosecutors also are demanding the forfeiture of $22 million in cash, homes, cars, motorcycles and a boat owned by him and his cohorts.

At Lucia's workplace, employees were "bummed" by the news of Nebel's bust, Lucia said. But worries that the office might get raided evaporated, and other dealers stepped in, though "their product does not hold up to Cartoon," she said.

Investigators seized customers' names and addresses from the drug operation's computer logs. But those people face little risk of prosecution, authorities said.

Authorities conceded the home delivery trade will probably survive because of the high demand for marijuana and the low penalties for dealing it.

Under state law, most marijuana offenses "are not treated as very significant crimes," said Bridget G. Brennen, the city's special narcotic prosecutor. "That is why you see the marijuana delivery services proliferating. Their exposure is slight."

[cacee13601]

i totally agree with willyeli... this is a total waste of time to even talk about this .. if the government would legalize it and tax it then they could make some serious money off it lol and i dont even smoke

[bob_burd]

These brutal dealers need to be put to death for their crimes perpetrated against the American people.

After the IRS takes away their children, their wives, their dogs and everything else they own.

[nadeau4201]

The U.S government incorrectly classed marijuana as an opiate during the opium wars and this notion has been adopted throughtout most of the world. The prohibition campaign was also backed by the cotton industry, which wanted to see the end of hemp industry for it's own gain and profit. The cotton industry financially backed the politcians who made the statements to the newspaper and the public about the so-called harmful effects-which have never been proven to this day. It will never be legal the govenment profits too much from it and I believe more people would grow their own, so therefore the government wouldn't profit off the sales tax if they did legalized it.

[willyeli]

Ridiculous

Between this and Iraq, this country is wasting resource's that could go towards solving real issues.

[fallngempire]

Poor, poor pot. Criminalized because of racism, prosecuted by hypocrits, safer per dose than tobacco, alcohol, and every single OTC painkiller medication in the world. What has caused the long term lapse of logic wherein Americans villify this plant?

Our greatest contribution to the modern world: Pure ignorance.

[antymom]

Right on! I don't ever hear that someone on marijuana, robbing banks or killing people. It's always the other man made junk that's *** up lives.
I say - legalizie it! Here in Hawaii we too have the BOMB!!!

[pakaal]

The "War on Drugs" is defacto racist, and is causing our prisons to be jammed with nonviolent offenders. Not to mention that there are no known fatalities associated with Marijuana use, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of people who die from alcohol or tobacco-related illnesses. Francis Young, the top judge for the DEA in 1989 said that Marijuana is "one of the most therapeutically active placebos known to man." This is the head DEA judge speaking!

The war on grass is futile and foolish. The government should have lots better things to do with their time and our money than to continue to prosecute people for Marijuana use.

[gwbrubaker]

Maybe I should ask Reverend Haggard what he thinks of this...

[mjv2944]

I say legalize it all, give it away on any street corner, the only string attached to it is if you OD or become incapable functioning, you are on your own, taxpayers paid for your drugs and that would be where the obligation ended. No more bringing you back with a shot of narcain, you OD you die. It wouldn't be long and we could shut down a good number of prisons, as crime would decrease due to the fact that your drugs are free. I have little or no sympathy for druggies and their suppliers, these people will die from their habit sooner or later and it might not be a pretty sight but if young kids seen these loosers lying dead on the street, it might sway them from trying it. This is a cash business and cash corrupts, just look at the justice system and whats going on on our borders.

[Syndicate]

I've seen more people destroy there lives with alcahol. Pot heads are rather peacful and lazy. Drunks are beligerant, Violent and ballsy and tend to kill others. Yet I can go home and buy all the alcahol I want.

[random_radar]

ozilot,

I can tell you are being sarcastic, but you are still right. Note that the clientele are "doctors, lawyers, Wall Street traders." These are not pot smoking hippies, but productive members of society. So long as they do their jobs and don't hurt me, I don't care what they do and I don't see a need to put them in prison.

Yes, the government should go after people who hurt us and defraud us. But the unconstitutional search and seizure laws used in the "drug war" are so profitable that the government would rather do that than protect us. Government officials love the illegal drug trade--it is the most profitable racket they have going!

[gunnerv1]

It's all a "Pipe Dream"