POT SHOPS LURING CRIME, SHERIFF SAYS

Medical Marijuana Industry 'Hijacked by Underground' Drug Dealers, Baca Says

Sheriff Lee Baca said Wednesday that the recent triple murder in West
Hollywood during an illegal sale of medical marijuana is another
example of how the collectives have been taken over in part by
enterprising criminals.

"The medicinal marijuana program that voters authorized years ago has
been hijacked by underground drug dealing criminals who are resorting
to violence in order to control their piece of the action," Baca said.

He said the criminal element has flooded the business because of the
outrageous profits to be made. "There are predators armed and seeking
easy dollars in sales of marijuana," Baca said.

Baca said his detectives have found marijuana collectives buying from
cartel sources and selling to people in large amounts. In the triple
slaying case, two of the dead men did business with at least four
dispensaries.

A man charged Wednesday with capital murder in the slayings confessed
to the crime during an interview with detectives, investigators said.

Harold Yong Park, 31, told investigators he previously bought and sold
marijuana from two of the men and that a dispute erupted when he came
to the West Hollywood apartment Thursday evening, where the victims
were shot to death.

Sheriff Lt. Pat Nelson said Pirooz Moussazadeh and Bernard Khalili had
bought high-grade medical marijuana from local pot dispensaries --
some in L.A. and two in West Hollywood -- and then resold it. In this
case, Park had stolen 4 to 5 pounds of high-grade hydroponically grown
marijuana after killing the trio.

The third man killed, Shahriar Moussazadeh, was not involved in the
drug deal and was a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, Nelson
said.

He said Park did not bring enough money to the deal to buy the drugs
he wanted. But detectives are not certain when he decided to kill the
men. Nelson said Park has a prior drug conviction and worked
previously for a marijuana collective.

Park is expected to appear in a Beverly Hills court Wednesday on
murder, robbery and burglaries charges. He is being held without bail.
He was arrested Monday in Lomita after his license plate that had been
entered into a wanted car database was spotted using a sheriff's
patrol car with an automatic license plate reader.

Meanwhile, the campaign to defeat Proposition 19 announced Wednesday
that Baca and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will head up the effort
to defeat the marijuana legalization measure on the November ballot.