By Josefa Velasquez
12:28 p.m. | Sep. 16, 2015
ALBANY — Ten people linked to a massive synthetic marijuana ring have been indicted in a crackdown on the drug, New York federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Six of the 10 were arrested Tuesday night and were expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office said in a press release.
According to the just-unsealed indictments, the 10 defendants conspired over the last year “to import, manufacture and distribute massive quantities of smokeable synthetic cannabinoids.”
Authorities say the defendants were involved in illegally importing at least 100 kilograms of illegal synthetic compounds — enough to produce 1,300 kilograms of dried synthetic marijuana product, or roughly 260,000 retail packets of the synthetic drug, Bharara’s office said.
Amid a broader crackdown on the drug, officials said that federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection — along with the New York Police Department and the city sheriff’s office — coordinated searches for five processing facilities and warehouses used to store, process and distribute synthetic marijuana and inspected over 80 stores and bodegas in New York City.
“Today, we launch an aggressive assault on a public health crisis that is reaching epidemic proportions: the scourge of dangerous new drugs that are killing people and sending thousands upon thousands to emergency rooms in New York City and around the country,” Bharara said. “Despite sometimes being called synthetic marijuana, this is not marijuana – it can have unpredictably severe and even lethal effects.”
Authorities say that synthetic marijuana users may suffer renal failure, high blood pressure, seizures or hallucinations — among other symptoms — and may behave violently, lose consciousness or even die.
Last month, the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council approved emergency rules by the state’s Department of Health to curb the sale of synthetic marijuana.
“This is a scourge on our society, affecting the most disadvantaged neighborhoods and our most challenged citizens,” said NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, who had previously referred to synthetic marijuana as “weaponized marijuana.”
“It affects teenagers in public housing, homeless in the city shelter system, and it’s quite literally flooding our streets,” he said. “This is marketed as synthetic marijuana, some call it K2. It is sold by the names of Galaxy, Diamond, Rush, and Matrix. But its real name is poison.”