FBI gives up attempt to confiscate cash from pot stores

LOS ANGELES — The FBI has abandoned its attempt to confiscate more than $1 million in cash that was seized from armored cars transporting the money for state-licensed marijuana businesses in California.

The FBI’s return of the money signals a retreat by the U.S. Justice Department from an aggressive legal move that could have disrupted the operation of marijuana outlets that are legal under California law but violate federal law.

The FBI initially alleged that the $1.1 million, seized last year from armored cars pulled over by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies in Barstow and Rancho Cucamonga, was tied to federal drug or money-laundering crimes, but nobody was charged.

The cash seizures — and another from the same armored-car company in Kansas — gave rise to suspicions the Justice Department under President Biden was working to thwart the operations of licensed marijuana businesses in California and the 36 other states that have legalized pot possession.

Empyreal Logistics, the company whose armored cars were carrying the seized currency, sought a court order in January to force the FBI and Sheriff’s Department to stop pulling over its vehicles and taking the cash without evidence of illegal activity. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter dismissed the case after the parties reached a deal to settle the dispute.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, declined to provide details on why the government agreed last month to drop its allegations and return the money.