Operation Green Merchant was a nationwide investigation and operation targeting businesses advertising specialized horticultural equipment that was supposedly used to grow cannabis in the 1990s.
Background
The DEA had decided to investigate the advertising inside the ''
High Times
''High Times'' was an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade. The magazine had its own book publishing d ...
'' and ''
Sinsemilla Tips'' with the goal of shutting down the blooming indoor marijuana industry using
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company specializi ...
records to trace deliveries of indoor growing equipment and seeds.
The three key targets of Green Merchant were the ''High Times'' magazine, ''Sinsemilla Tips'' magazine and the Holland's Seed Bank owned by
Nevil Schoenmakers.
On October 26, 1989, the DEA along with other local, state and federal agents, raided hydroponics and garden stores and business in 46 states, seizing assets and more than 100 arrests. Operation Green Merchant, which lasted from 1988 to 1992, resulted in 1,698 arrests, 3,794 indoor growing operations seized, and $35 million in drug assets seized.
See also
*
Martin Heydt
Martin Heydt is an American businessman who founded the Worm's Way Group and served as its president and CEO until 2014. Heydt purchased an abandoned bait shop near Bloomington, Indiana in 1985 and turned the 500-square-foot building into the fir ...
References
External links
Coverage on the matter
Anti-cannabis operations
Drug Enforcement Administration operations
Cannabis in California
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