The post Florida Man Busted For Weed Trafficking And Giving Grow Advice appeared first on High Times.
A Florida man busted for weed trafficking and giving grow advice through a now-defunct hydroponics garden supplies shop in Miami has agreed to a plea deal that will allow him to keep a whopping $4 million, his home, the aforementioned store and five Rolex watches.
The Original Arrest
Miami-Dade Corrections
On Wednesday, the 46-year old Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and intentionally structuring bank deposits to avoid the federal government’s reporting requirement, according to NBC 6. As a part of Hernandez-Gonzalez’s plea deal, all drug trafficking charges were dropped.
The local business owner was originally arrested back in June 2016 in what was the largest money seizure in the Miami-Dade Police Department’s history.
“The amount of the currency seized represents one of the largest money seizures ever in this jurisdiction,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle at the time.
According to police, the then-44-year-old Hernandez-Gonzalez, who ran The Blossom Experience in Miami Dade, was in trafficking cannabis to Tennessee with two other men– Miami natives Luis Rego and Pedro Martin. Authorities noted he had been a target of the investigation since 2010 when cops got wind of the operation through a network of informants.
Hernandez-Gonzalez was also recorded in conversation, giving customers and associates advice on how to grow cannabis plants.
“You don’t need to do anything to it,” Hernandez-Gonzalez told Rego back in April of 2016. “You need to keep it … unbothered and cool. A little bit of food.”
Following the probe, officers raided Herandez-Gonzalez’s business and found drugs and $180,000 in a safe. However, the big haul came from Hernandez-Gonzalez’s