FEDERAL AUTHORITIES NEARING SETTLEMENT WITH ACCUSED MARIJUANA-GROW
OPERATIONS SUPPLIER

Federal authorities are close to resolving a
years-long investigation into a Front Range hydroponics gardening
store owner and a network of basement marijuana grows, according to
court records.

Federal prosecutors accuse Corey Inniss, the owner of the Way to Grow
chain of hydroponics stores, of supplying growing equipment from his
stores to help set up several marijuana cultivation operations in
homes from Boulder to Fort Collins.

In exchange for the equipment, Inniss received a cut of the
operations' proceeds, according to the documents.

Prosecutors accuse Inniss of taking the money he received from the
marijuana operation and depositing it into business accounts for his
hydroponics stores.

The court documents state that, between April 2005 and August 2006,
Inniss made nearly $1.3 million in cash deposits into two Way to Grow
bank accounts.

Authorities launched the investigation in August 2006, and recent
filings suggest that the case may soon be resolved.

"The parties continue to be engaged in settlement negotiations and
believe that a settlement is eminent as part of a global resolution
involving criminal charges as well," federal prosecutors wrote in a
Dec. 3 status update filing in one of the forfeiture cases.

Both Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in
Denver, and Mike Turner, a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman,
declined to comment on the case.

Jeralyn Merritt, an attorney for Inniss, said in a statement: "Mr.
Inniss, Way to Grow and the Government have expended considerable time
and effort over the past year to resolve their legal differences. We
anticipate a full resolution within the next few months. Way to Grow
will continue to operate in full compliance with the law."

The investigation details appear in court documents in two asset
forfeiture cases filed in federal District Court in Denver.

In the first case, federal prosecutors are seeking to seize five
houses - one in Windsor, one in Erie and three in Fort Collins - where
the growing operations are alleged to have been housed. In the second
case, prosecutors are trying to seize $48,900 found at one of the houses.

In October 2009, federal agents raided nine houses connected with the
case and seized 981 mature and starter marijuana plants, according to
the documents.

The attorney for one of the alleged growers, Martin Pieper, asserted
in one case filing that any cultivation at Pieper's house complied
with Colorado's medical-marijuana laws.

Pieper's attorney, Joseph Saint-Veltri, declined to elaborate when
reached by telephone.