EX-OPERATOR OF POT DISPENSARY IN ROSEVILLE INDICTED

Richard James Marino Was A Drug Trafficker Trying To Hide Behind Law,
U.S. Attorney Says.

The former operator of a marijuana dispensary in Roseville has been
indicted by a federal grand jury on drug and money laundering
charges, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott announced Friday.

At a news conference unveiling Thursday's indictment, Scott said
Richard James Marino was a big-time narcotics trafficker trying to
hide behind the California law that authorizes medical use of
marijuana if a doctor recommends it.

The indictment alleges that Marino grossed about $2.75 million in the
eight months his store was open from January 2004 to early September
of that year.

"He saw an opportunity to make a lot of money and he seized that
opportunity," Scott said.

The U.S. attorney emphasized that, even under California's
Compassionate Use Act, it is illegal to sell marijuana for profit.
The ballot measure approved by voters in 1996 did not bar sales for
profit, but the statute was amended to include that provision as of
Jan. 1, 2004.

Under federal law, cultivation, possession or use of marijuana for
any purpose is a crime.

"There is a widespread misperception that most of the people who are
using marijuana for so-called medical purposes are either seriously
or terminally ill," said Gordon Taylor, assistant special agent in
charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Sacramento.
"It's becoming abundantly clear to us at the DEA that many of the
people using marijuana under the cover of state marijuana laws are
doing so simply to justify their chronic use of marijuana and their
desire to get high."

Marino's store, Capitol Compassionate Care, was on historic Old
Roseville's Lincoln Street near the Union Pacific railyard.

"To give some sense of the amount of money pumping through the
business, on the day DEA agents raided the club - Sept. 3, 2004 -
there was $105,000 in cash in the safe," Scott told reporters.

Agents seized the cash, plus another $11,000 from a bank account, 47
pounds of processed marijuana and 617 marijuana plants in raids on
the store and Marino's 5-acre Newcastle property where he grew the
marijuana. Ultimately, the government kept $92,000 of the money.

"What happened here is that Richard Marino took an illegal marijuana
growing operation and he plunked it down smack dab in the middle of a
residential neighborhood of Newcastle," Taylor said at Friday's news
conference at the federal courthouse in Sacramento.

He said the Newcastle property was surrounded by an electrified fence
and Marino hired uniformed security guards.

Marino is charged in the 19-count indictment with conspiracy to
distribute marijuana, possession with the intent to distribute
marijuana and manufacturing marijuana. He is also charged with
engaging in various transactions with ill-gotten gains and laundering
$356,130 through multiple accounts.

Tracking the money was an arduous task for Internal Revenue Service
agents, made even more difficult by Marino's haphazard
record-keeping, Scott said.

The 52-year-old former electrician was arrested early Friday at his
home in Fort Bragg, where he has been living since the DEA put him
out of business in Roseville.

Later in the day Marino made a brief appearance before U.S.
Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows. Attorney John Duree Jr., who
represents Marino, could not be located, and Hollows put the
arraignment and bail hearing over to Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William Wong wants Marino held without bail.
The prosecutor told Hollows that much of the income generated by
Marino's marijuana operation is still unaccounted for, which makes
him a flight risk, assuming he has access to the money.

Less than a week after the 2004 raids on Marino's home and business,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Door filed a civil complaint seeking
forfeiture of both properties.

Two days after the raids Marino sold his Newcastle home. He had paid
$550,000 for it, and had made a down payment of $110,000. The
government recently settled its claim against that property for
$110,000 from Marino. The claim against the Roseville building is
still being litigated.