"We're open. We have medicine on our shelf for our patients," Andy Norton said. Norton is letting customers know she's restocking the shelves with marijuana and the Bayside Collective is re-opened a day after federal DEA agents seized pot and paperwork from the business.
"What we are doing is legal and we have all of our paperwork, we have our license, we pay our taxes," Norton said.
The Seattle Cross, the Tacoma Cross, and Key Peninsula Cross were also raided. Court documents reveal those dispensaries, along with the now closed Lacey Cross, were all raided at the beginning of two-year investigation.
At the time, the dispensaries were all owned by the same man who was under investigation for illegal pot sales and money laundering.
A search warrant affidavit showed a lucrative business. The Seattle Cross alone brought in at least $850,000 in a single year.
"Do you know anything about money laundering?"
"Absolutely not," Casey Lee said. He used to work for the owner at Lacey Cross, but says he cut ties after the first raids. Lee knows pot remains illegal under federal law, but he says his Bayside Collective follows Washington state law.
When asked if he could account for every penny, he replied, "Absolutely."
