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August 18, 2016

Tribe's pot resort plan leads to drug charges

  • A consultant on what was to be the nation's first marijuana resort pleaded guilty to a drug offense for ordering pot seeds.
    • By REGINA GARCIA CANO
    Associated Press

    FLANDREAU, S.D. — One of two consultants who worked with a Native American tribe on its plans to open the nation's first marijuana resort pleaded guilty Monday to a drug offense stemming from his role in the operation, including ordering pot seeds that were shipped surreptitiously from the Netherlands to the reservation.

    Jonathan Hunt, who oversaw the first marijuana crop of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, entered his guilty plea to a drug conspiracy count in the city of Flandreau, which is adjacent to the tribe's reservation in eastern South Dakota. The state's top prosecutor filed drug-related charges Aug. 3 against Hunt and Eric Hagen, the CEO of the Colorado-based consulting firm Monarch America. The charges came eight months after tribal leaders destroyed the marijuana crop, fearing a federal raid and walking away from an ambitious and headline-grabbing scheme to develop “an adult playground.”


     
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