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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico marijuana regulators on Tuesday revoked the licenses of two rising operations in a rural county for quite a few violations and have levied a $1 million wonderful in opposition to every enterprise.
One of many companies — Native American Agricultural Improvement Co. — is related to a Navajo businessman whose hashish farming operations in northwestern New Mexico had been raided by federal authorities in 2020. The Navajo Division of Justice additionally sued Dineh Benally, resulting in a courtroom order halting these operations.
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A gaggle of Chinese language immigrant employees sued Benally and his associates — and claimed they had been lured to northern New Mexico and compelled to work lengthy hours illegally trimming marijuana on the Navajo Nation, the place rising the plant is against the law.
Within the discover made public Tuesday by New Mexico’s Hashish Management Division, Native American Agricultural Improvement was accused of exceeding the state’s plant depend limits, of not monitoring and tracing its stock, and for creating unsafe circumstances.
An electronic mail message searching for touch upon the allegations was not instantly returned by Benally. David Jordan, an lawyer who represented him within the earlier case, didn’t return a telephone message Tuesday.
The opposite enterprise to have its license revoked was Bliss Farm, additionally situated in rural Torrance County inside miles of Benally’s operation. State officers stated the 2 companies, east of Albuquerque, aren’t related in any method.
The state ordered each to right away cease all business hashish exercise.
“The illicit exercise carried out at each of those farms undermines the nice work that many hashish companies are doing throughout the state,” Clay Bailey, appearing superintendent of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Division, stated in an announcement. “The extreme quantity of unlawful hashish crops and different critical violations demonstrates a blatant disregard for public well being and security, and for the regulation.”
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State regulators cited Bliss Farm for 17 violations. Regulators stated proof of a current harvest with out information entered into the state’s observe and hint system led the division to conclude that crops had been transferred or offered illicitly.
Adam Oakey, an Albuquerque lawyer representing the group of buyers that personal the operation, informed The Related Press in an interview that the corporate had hoped the state would have first labored with it to handle among the points earlier than revoking the license.
“We did our greatest to get into compliance however we fell beneath the bar,” he stated, including that he’s afraid the state’s motion may discourage others within the trade from coming to New Mexico.
The corporate already has invested tens of tens of millions of {dollars} into the operation and can possible should go to courtroom to reopen the farm, Oakey stated.
As for Native American Agricultural Improvement, regulators stated there have been about 20,000 mature crops on web site — 4 occasions greater than the quantity allowed underneath its license. Inspectors additionally discovered one other 20,000 immature crops.
The opposite violations included improper safety measures, no chain of custody procedures, and ill-maintained grounds with trash and pests all through. Compliance officers additionally noticed proof of a current harvest however no crops had been entered into the state’s track-and-trace system.
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The violations had been first reported final fall by Searchlight New Mexico, an impartial information group. On the time, Navajo Lawyer Common Ethel Department informed the nonprofit group that the tribe and the Shiprock space nonetheless deserved justice for the hurt executed beforehand by the develop operation that had been arrange in northwestern New Mexico years earlier.
Federal prosecutors is not going to remark, however the New Mexico Lawyer Common’s Workplace confirmed Tuesday that normally it “continues to research, with our federal companions, potential prison exercise inside the New Mexico hashish trade.”
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