Former Newcastle man arrested after medipot raid

A former Placer County man who operated the Capitol Compassionate Care medical marijuana dispensary in Roseville is in federal custody on charges stemming from a 2004 raid of that business. Richard James Marino, 52, formerly of Newcastle, was arrested without incident at 7:15 a.m. Friday in the driveway of his Fort Bragg home by agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, said Gordon Taylor, special agent in charge of the DEA's Sacramento office. Fort Bragg Police Lt. Floyd E. Higdon said local agents were not involved with the arrest. Taylor said agents took Marino into custody and transported him to Sacramento, where he was scheduled to appear before a U.S. Magistrate on Friday. Marino was arrested after a federal grand jury returned a 19-count indictment with forfeiture allegations Thursday, charging him with marijuana trafficking and money laundering offenses. "This has everything to do with that investigation into the Roseville-based Capitol Compassionate Care," Taylor said. The investigation took two years and involved officials from the DEA, the Internal Revenue Service and the Roseville Police Department, Taylor said. In September 2004, federal DEA agents conducted a raid of the business and Marino's Newcastle home, seizing 47 pounds of processed marijuana, $105,000 in cash and 617 marijuana plants in various stages of growth at the business and the home. No arrests were made at the time of the raid, but Marino shut down the business the following month after employees quit for fear of being arrested. "Nobody wanted to go to prison," Marino said at the time. "I didn't want any of my employees to go to prison. I don't want to go to prison myself trying to take care of sick people." The indictment issued Thursday alleges from January through September 2004 - the months Capitol Compassionate Care was in operation - Marino and others "conspired to distribute at least 100 kilograms of marijuana and that Marino manufactured, distributed and possessed with intent to distribute marijuana." The indictment also alleges Marino laundered more than $2.75 million in illegal drug proceeds from the sale of marijuana at the Roseville business "under the guise of dispensing medical marijuana." Marino was operating his business under a law California voters passed in 1996 that allows for the medicinal use of marijuana. It conflicts with federal laws that make all uses of marijuana illegal. "The cultivation and sale of marijuana is, without exception, illegal under federal law," U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott said in a press release issued following the arrest. "Further, there is no question that Mr. Marino's activities were equally illegal under state law." Officials planned to ask a federal judge Friday to hold Marino without bail, Taylor said, noting that not all of the $2.75 million had been accounted for, and Marino could be considered a flight risk. Taylor said the indictment issued against Marino was "pretty significant." "Hopefully this sends a message that with marijuana, if you possess, cultivate or distribute it in any form you are in violation of federal law," he said. "If you choose to go down that particular path, you do so at your own legal peril."Sherri L. Shaulis can be reached at sherris@goldcountrymedia.com.