Police in the Southern California city of Costa Mesa were forced to return $800,000 worth of product to a cannabis distributor after seizing it in a raid.
The cannabis was seized in a raid on the store Se7enLeaf in September 2023 after authorities accused the owner of operating illegally, Knewz.com has learned.
Costa Mesa police officers personally returned the cannabis to owner Michael Moussalli on Thursday, March 21. The returned goods included more than 100 pounds of bud, boxes of vapes and other marijuana devices, the New York Post reported.
The controversy surrounding the cannabis began on September 7, 2023, when authorities in the City of Costa Mesa raided the store and said that Moussalli was using Se7enLeaf to deliver products for a second cannabis business, High Seas, and that he did not have a business license to deliver the products.
Despite Moussalli saying they were using a third-party vendor for the deliveries and had the necessary permits, and telling the authorities High Seas was in the process of obtaining a cannabis permit, his products were nevertheless confiscated.
In November, High Seas sued the City of Costa Mesa, arguing the city broke the law by delaying the appropriate permit, and without giving any reason for doing so. Moussalli said the city also refused to approve High Seas’ permit while its investigation into Se7enLeaf was ongoing.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the case was settled in February, and Moussalli agreed to pay the legal fees.
Moussalli told SFGATE.com that while he was happy the cannabis was returned, he was angry with the city for not believing he had been operating legally from day one and taking far too long to return his product.
“The sad thing is once all this info was shared, there was no apologies… The police were not happy that no charges were filed. The police were not happy that the product was being returned.”
Moussalli also told SFGATE.com the returned product had a wholesale value of around $800,000 and a retail value of between $1.5 million and $2 million. However, even though they had now been returned, some of the products were too old to be sold.
“The city held our permit hostage at High Seas,” he said, “so, I had no choice other than to settle. Otherwise, we would have ended up in court for three to four years, but nobody has time to sit on a multimillion-dollar investment.”
He told the Post that his operation was ruined because of the city’s actions.
“They essentially wrecked my business with what they’ve done,” Moussalli said. “I’ve lost customers. I’m in a situation now where I may not be able to stay in one of my two facilities, because there’s a lot of financial burdens that need to be addressed. And quite frankly, I’m trying to right this ship as best as possible and save the business millions of dollars in damages and delays.”
The Post reported that when police returned the products last week, employees said officers continued to insist that Se7enLeaf was operating illegally. Moussalli said their attitude didn’t surprise him.
“They were very arrogant. They were very aggressive,” he said.
The post California Police Forced to Return $800K Worth of Marijuana to Store Owners Following Raid appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Kelly Hartog
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