Federal agents raid marijuana operations

Federal agents searched several medical marijuana businesses in the Flathead Valley on Monday, the same day similar raids were carried out in several Montana cities.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry confirmed that the lead agency in local searches was Homeland Security Investigations, formerly known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that sheriff’s deputies assisted in the searches.

One of the searches was conducted at a building occupied by Four Seasons Gardening and Good Medicine Providers on Jellison Road in the Columbia Falls area.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana said she could not release more information on the statewide operation until the sealed search warrants were unsealed by court order.

However, the Associated Press reported that the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration were involved in a search at Montana Cannabis in Helena, where at least eight people were handcuffed at one point.

Similar searches were conducted at Big Sky Patient Care in Bozeman and at MCM in Belgrade.

A Flathead Valley medical marijuana care provider contacted the Inter Lake on Monday saying he had been in contact with at least five marijuana dispensaries that have been subjected to searches.

“It’s essentially shut down every medical marijuana dispensary,” Dan Decker said, adding that some of the dispensary owners who are being searched testified against a bill to repeal Montana’s medical marijuana in a Senate hearing last week.

The repeal bill stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday morning.

Decker said he has not been contacted by authorities.

“I don’t have a dispensary,” he said. “I only have a few patients.”