That NYPD Hemp Bust

Burlington Free Press report..

On Nov. 3, the NYPD touted a 106-pound drug bust, tweeting a photo of two officers from Brooklyn’s 75th Precinct standing next to over fifty bags of what appears to be marijuana.

“Great job by Day Tour Sector E yesterday. Working with FedEx and other local law enforcement, they were able to confiscate 106 Lbs. of marijuana, and arrest the individual associated with the intended delivery,” the precinct wrote.

Only one problem: The marijuana was actually hemp, according to Oren Levy, the owner Green Angel CBD. Levy’s company purchased the product from Fox Holler Farms in New Haven, Vermont.

In an interview with the Free Press, Levy said each box of the shipment contained documentation from a third-party lab stating the plant had THC-levels below 0.3 percent, the federal legal limit.

Detective Sophia Mason, a spokesperson for the Officer of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information, said the investigation is “active and ongoing.”

Waiting for lab test results

At a Nov. 6 crime statistics briefing, NYPD Chief of Department Terence A. Monahan told reporters that the department “got information about a large package of drugs, we got it in here, we field-tested it as marijuana. We called the individual in, he was placed under arrest.”

Monahan said the shipment “is currently at the lab at this point to make a final determination,” about whether it was hemp.

“The individual had no bill of lading justifying its delivery,” Monahan added, saying the investigation was ongoing in cooperation with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.

A bill of lading is a document describing the contents of freight deliveries that are less than a truckload, according to a FedEx guide.

Williston police checked out shipment

When the boxes were shipped on Nov. 1, Williston police chief Patrick Foley was contacted by FedEx about a shipment they believed was marijuana.

“The company opened two boxes in front of me,” Foley said. “Both boxes contained paperwork explaining the shipper as a registered Vermont hemp grower and had laboratory work from October 2019 stating a THC content of .06%.”

“I advised the company that this does appear to be legal hemp and not marijuana and the police were not going to seize it,” Foley said.

Still, according to Levy, a FedEx employee in New York tipped the NYPD about the shipment after it made its way to New York. Officers confiscated the package and called Levy into the precinct, asking him to come pick it up.

More at

https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2019/11/06/nypds-seizes-shipment-vermont-hemp-farm-they-thought-marijuana/4175727002/

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