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Breckenridge resident Eric Gleason was arrested Wednesday morning after his house was raided in a statewide marijuana pot bust.
Authorities raided 25 grow houses across the Front Range and the central mountains, arresting 13 people and seizing dozens of guns, more than 100 pounds of marijuana and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and Iraqi currency, according to a statement released Friday by the Seventeenth Judicial District Attorney's Office and the North Metro Task Force.
Gleason was charged with conspiracy under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, money laundering, possession with intent to distribute and two counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, said Krista Flannigan, spokeswoman for the task force.
He has been released from jail in Adams County after posting a $100,000 bond.
His first court appearance is set for Feb. 21.
Authorities with the North Metro Drug Task Force, with help from the U.S. Postal Service, conducted the sting after a six-month investigation of an illegal marijuana grow and distribution ring operating primarily out of Adams County and Broomfield.
During searches of 24 houses illegally growing marijuana, authorities found 40 guns, 2,749 marijuana plants and 148 pounds of dry marijuana.
They also found more than $278,500 in U.S. currency and another 15 million in Iraqi Dinar, which, based on current exchange rates, is more than $12,000.
A total of 69 criminal charges, all similar to those being brought against Gleason, have been pressed against the 12 other people arrested.
Evidence discovered in the raids indicates the drug ring was a large “criminal enterprise” using the U.S. Postal Service to distribute marijuana to other states, including California, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the statement.
Authorities raided 25 grow houses across the Front Range and the central mountains, arresting 13 people and seizing dozens of guns, more than 100 pounds of marijuana and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and Iraqi currency, according to a statement released Friday by the Seventeenth Judicial District Attorney's Office and the North Metro Task Force.
Gleason was charged with conspiracy under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, money laundering, possession with intent to distribute and two counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, said Krista Flannigan, spokeswoman for the task force.
He has been released from jail in Adams County after posting a $100,000 bond.
His first court appearance is set for Feb. 21.
Authorities with the North Metro Drug Task Force, with help from the U.S. Postal Service, conducted the sting after a six-month investigation of an illegal marijuana grow and distribution ring operating primarily out of Adams County and Broomfield.
During searches of 24 houses illegally growing marijuana, authorities found 40 guns, 2,749 marijuana plants and 148 pounds of dry marijuana.
They also found more than $278,500 in U.S. currency and another 15 million in Iraqi Dinar, which, based on current exchange rates, is more than $12,000.
A total of 69 criminal charges, all similar to those being brought against Gleason, have been pressed against the 12 other people arrested.
Evidence discovered in the raids indicates the drug ring was a large “criminal enterprise” using the U.S. Postal Service to distribute marijuana to other states, including California, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas, according to the statement.
