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xxdr_zombiexx

Virginia Beach Painter-Turned-Marijuana-Dealer
Sentenced To 30 Years
March 19,2004|wavy.com

(AP) - A bankrupt painting contractor who became a marijuana dealer to pull himself out of financial trouble has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for running a $50 million drug ring.

Robert E. Phillips, 55, of Virginia Beach, pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and money laundering charges. Authorities said his nationwide marijuana ring was one of the largest to ever operate in Hampton Roads.

"I'm sorry I got involved in all this," he said Thursday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Virginia Beach police seized more than $3 million, several homes, a boat and a tractor-trailer that had been used to haul the drugs around the country.

Phillips amassed so much cash during the 11 years he ran the operation that some of it had grown moldy sitting inside storage units. His operation distributed more than 30 tons of marijuana over the 11 years. Roughly $2 million worth of pot has been seized.

Authorities think Phillips imported marijuana from Mexico, mostly through the borders with Arizona and Texas. He based his operation out of a home in Chesapeake, authorities said.

In the late 1990s, police discovered large amounts of marijuana in Missouri and at a border crossing in Texas. Phillips avoided prosecution at the time by paying his couriers not to snitch on him, authorities said.

Phillips said Thursday he was "looking for a quick fix" after his painting company went under in the early 1990s. "At no time did I think I was hurting anybody," he said.

Ten others have been convicted in the case.

[Suetaznote: I don't believe he was doing anything wrong. He was creating jobs for the people that worked for him and he was laundering money that wouldn't have been necessary if it were legal.

Is marijuana really worth sending someone to prison for 30 years? Will the amount of money it will cost the taxpayers to incarcerate him be worth it? Not to mention the other ten that were convicted.

All that money, property and assets that were seized will not go toward his incarceration costs, it will go to the DEA. In essence, it sounds like the DEA just hit the jackpot with that arrest.

This is the reason they won't legalize marijuana, it's the DEA's cash cow. Now a man gets to spend the next 30 years of his life behind bars, will probably never vote again and will be financially screwed for life. All for making a business out of a harmless plant. All out of desperation. This is what prohibition creates.

Prohibition costs more than it is worth. And the citizens will get to pay for his incarceration. How many American's feel safer now with this man behind bars and how many don't have a problem with paying for his incarceration through your taxes?]

__________________
Alien Space Signal

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel

Fear became the ultimate tool of this government - V.

 

lilgrasshoppah

Let's review, shall we?

This man will be EIGHTY when he completes his sentence. EIGHTY!

For growing plants. For AGRICULTURE!!!

How is that not cruel and unusual punishment?!

This is despicable and untenable.