United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun seizing massive amounts of marijuana from state-licensed marijuana businesses in New Mexico, while detaining and in some instances arresting employees.
(Photo credit: Eric Risberg/Associated Press).
Over the past two months the CBP has confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana transported by state-licensed marijuana companies as they pass through interior border checkpoints in New Mexico. It’s also been reported that a handful of marijuana employees have been arrested.
In an audio recording of one of the seizures, a Border Patrol agent can be heard saying “We’ve been instructed to seize all cannabis—all illegal products. It’s still federally illegal.”
During a back-and-forth between the officer and the person being detained, the officer refused to state that he recognizes that marijuana is legal in New Mexico.
Kai Kirk, a partner at Head Space Alchemy, said that agents stopped and arrested some of their employees last month.
“It’s typically a routine process. They just stop cars every now and then—whoever they want—and ask if you’re a legal resident. Check that you’re not trafficking people—which is their job—and then they let us go on our way.”
During this particular stop, when employees told Border Patrol agents that they were transporting legal marijuana as part of their jobs at a licensed marijuana store, Kirk said “They threw our employees in a holding cell. They had their pictures taken. They were fingerprinted. They were made to feel like criminals.”
Kirk says “We weren’t given any paperwork. We were not even given anything that reflects that the seizure even occurred. So there’s not even a way for us to even prove that this product was taken by the federal government.”
Matt Chadwick, CEO of Top Crop Cannabis Co., says he was detained in February and had 22 pounds of cannabis seized.
“We’ve been going through that checkpoint for over a year, no questions asked, so obviously we’re doing everything compliantly. It was manifested product. So, I was shocked, a little blown away and taken back.”
In a public statement Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) said “Stopping the flow of illicit fentanyl into our country should be the Department of Homeland Security’s focus at these checkpoints, not seizing cannabis that’s being transported in compliance with state law. New Mexicans are depending on federal law enforcement to do everything they can to keep our communities safe. Our resources should be used to maximize residents’ safety, not distract from it.”
In an e-mail statement, a spokesperson for CBP said; “Although legal for medical and/or recreational use in many states, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. Therefore, U.S. Border Patrol agents will continue to take appropriate enforcement action against those who are encountered in possession of marijuana anywhere in the United States.”
Up until this point marijuana business employees in other border states that have legalized recreational marijuana (California and Arizona, for example) do not appear to be facing the same kind of seizures and arrests at interior checkpoints.
