Aurora couple accused of operating massive black market marijuana are growing out of their Seven Hills home.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brachler spoke to reporters during a DEA raid on several marijuana growing homes in Southeast Aurora. Photo by Queenie Snowden / Sentinel.
Marijuana plants form a driveway outside a home in Southeast Aurora after a massive TEA raid on homes across the city on October 10, 2018. Photo by Queenie Snowden.
Aurora | A Southeastern Aurora couple has been convicted of multiple federal charges from a large black market marijuana operation that left their home on East Donee Drive. The prosecutor’s office said.
Investigators found 878 marijuana plants and nearly 10 pounds of cured products at the home of 20050 E. Doane Dr. and the couple. That total amount of cannabis would have been enough to roll out about 150,000 joints, according to the Ton office.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brachler said last year that a pound black market that sells for about $ 1,000 in Colorado could net $ 6,000 in states without legalizing marijuana and Florida.
Aurora Police and the North Metro Task Force helped execute dozens of search warrants across East Aurora, the same day investigators removed the plants from Yan and Chiang’s home.
The couple now faces a minimum of five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24, 2020.
Aurora couples were punished in centralized court this week for their role in a large-scale dark market marijuana-raising operation, the first to be sent to jail as part of a massive Denver-area drug deal announced last year.
54-year-old Huangyu Yan and 50-year-old Yu Lan Chiang were sentenced to 36 months and 30 months in federal prison, respectively, with a plan to distribute nearly 900 marijuana plants in their basement, along with a distribution of drugs. The prosecutor’s office said in a news release.
Following a four-day trial, the two were charged with cannabis cultivation in December.
The drug bust was part of a two-year consolidation effort that targeted a drug trafficking system and set up shop in hundreds of homes around the Denver area.
According to law enforcement, the largest pot bust in Colorado history, the investigation led to dozens of arrests, more than 80,000 marijuana plants and millions of dollars in cash.
