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DEA raids in Seattle: DEA targets Seattle pot dispensaries

DEA raids in Seattle: Washington voters legalized adult possession of marijuana last fall, but it remains illegal under federal law. The DEA raided these four and 16 other marijuana dispensaries in 2011.

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Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-JournalAP
This flowering legal medical cannabis plant was grown by licensed patient Jennifer Solasat at her home in Henderson, Nev. The DEA raided four medical marijuana dispensaries in Seattle, Washington Thursday.
  • By Associated Press

| SEATTLE

The four marijuana dispensaries raided by federal authorities in Washington state this week were all targets of previous federal raids.

Seattle Cross, Tacoma Cross, Key Peninsula Cross and Bayside Collective — formerly Lacey Cross — were among about 20 medical marijuana storefronts raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration in November 2011.

The DEA has provided little information about the four searches conducted Wednesday, but an employee at Bayside Collective told The Associated Press she was informed by agents that the raids were part of a two-year investigation.

A search warrant affidavit filed in support of the earlier searches said there was evidence that the medical dispensaries were fronts for commercial drug dealing. No federal criminal charges immediately resulted from the 2011 searches of those four shops.

Washington voters legalized adult possession of marijuana last fall, but it remains illegal under federal law. The state's medical marijuana law does not allow for storefront dispensaries, but many have been tolerated by law enforcement.

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