Violent criminals may be taking over legal marijuana collectives to turn a profit, according to authorities.
Sheriff Lee Baca said in the LA Times that the recent murders in West Hollywood which involved an illegal sale of medical marijuana is another example of armed "predators" seeking easy money by selling marijuana.
"The medicinal marijuana program that voters authorized years ago has been hijacked by underground drug dealing criminals who are resorting to violence in order to control their piece of the action," Baca said.
Pirooz Moussazadeh, 27, his brother, Shahriar Moussazadeh, 38, and Bernard Khalili, 27, were shot at the Kings Arms apartments in the 600 block of North Kings Road last week over what police say was a drug deal gone wrong.
Harold Yong Park, 31, of East Hollywood, was arrested Monday and later confessed to the murders after being interviewed by homicide investigators, according to police.
Pirooz Moussazadeh and Khalili allegedly purchased high-grade medical marijuana from local dispensaries and would resell it, police said. Park told police he had previously bought and sold marijuana from the two before. He allegedly did not have enough money to purchase the drugs he wanted and killed the men along with Shahriar Moussazadeh in order to steel 4 to 5 pounds of marijuana, the Times reported.
According to the Times:
Baca said his detectives have found marijuana collectives buying from cartel sources and selling to people in large amounts. In the triple slaying case, two of the dead men did business with at least four dispensaries.
Police said Shahriar Moussazadeh was not involved in the drug deal but happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Park is being held without bail and is expected to appear in court Wednesday on murder, robbery, and burglaries charges, the Times reported.
