{"id":8892,"date":"2020-01-20T13:22:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T13:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3838667"},"modified":"2020-01-20T13:22:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T13:22:27","slug":"denver-dispensary-burglaries-hit-3-year-high-as-2019-ended-with-rash-of-armed-robberies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/denver-dispensary-burglaries-hit-3-year-high-as-2019-ended-with-rash-of-armed-robberies\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver dispensary burglaries hit 3-year high as 2019 ended with rash of armed robberies"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/denver-dispensary-burglaries-hit-3-year-high-as-2019-ended-with-rash-of-armed-robberies\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/denver-dispensary-burglaries-hit-3-year-high-as-2019-ended-with-rash-of-armed-robberies.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/01\/20\/denver-marijuana-burglaries-increase\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"3838667\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Police are investigating a string of armed robberies of metro-area dispensaries in December as the number of break-ins at Denver marijuana businesses hit a three-year high in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Dispensaries in the city reported five robberies and 122 burglaries last year, according to the Denver Police Department. Both offenses increased slightly from 2018, when Denver marijuana businesses reported one robbery and 120 burglaries.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, crimes related to the marijuana industry accounted for 0.30% of Denver\u2019s total offenses reported in 2018, the latest year data was available, according to the police department.<\/p>\n<p>Burglary of controlled substances, a class 2 felony, is the most common type of crime in the marijuana industry, said Denver police Cmdr. James Henning, of the department\u2019s investigative division, adding that criminals primarily target dispensaries and cannabis grows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like cash in hand,\u201d Henning said. In Colorado, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2020\/01\/14\/colorado-cannabis-marijuana-wholesale-market\/\">marijuana at wholesale price<\/a> is going for $1,200 per pound\u2026 but if you take that same pound of marijuana to the East Coast, it\u2019s worth $3,000 to $3,500.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John Goutell, general counsel for Frosted Leaf, said the dispensary\u2019s three Denver locations have been burglarized after hours eight times since 2014. But a robbery at its Cherry Creek location on Dec. 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westword.com\/marijuana\/denver-marijuana-dispensary-robbery-ring-continues-spree-at-native-roots-11578857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in which four men held two employees at gunpoint<\/a>, signals an escalation.<\/p>\n<p>Police believe those suspects are linked to six dispensary robberies in the Denver area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith all the stories that have been published about reaching certain tax collection milestones \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/06\/12\/colorado-marijuana-revenue-one-billion\/\">you hear about a billion dollars collected<\/a> \u2014 there\u2019s this misconception there will be piles of money at these places if they come in,\u201d Goutell said, adding that the robbers last month got away with less than $10,000 in cash and products.<\/p>\n<p>Crime hasn\u2019t always been so prevalent. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of marijuana burglaries was sliced in half, from 169 incidents to 83. During that time, Denver police made a point to work with the industry on preventative security measures, such as security camera placement and the type of locks used, Henning said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\" \/>\n<p>Frosted Leaf beefed up security following the December robbery, but Goutell believes it will take more than that to curb the problem. Dispensary employees are \u201cabsolutely\u201d worried there will be another stickup and some are considering leaving the industry because of the threat, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe probably won\u2019t see any relief in these kinds of robberies until these businesses aren\u2019t forced to deal only in cash,\u201d Goutell said.<\/p>\n<p>Moving away from being a cash-only industry isn\u2019t a pipe dream. In September, the U.S. House of Representatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/09\/25\/us-house-pot-business-banking\/\">passed the SAFE Banking Act<\/a>, which would give legal marijuana operations access to banking services. Authored by Colorado Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, the bill was recently discussed by the Senate Banking Committee and legislators are hopeful it will be signed into law this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Police are investigating a string of armed robberies of metro-area dispensaries in December as the number of break-ins at Denver marijuana businesses hit a three-year high in 2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6905,5062,52,6811,851,7427,6813,77,5577,6814,9,7231,5019,5890,7504,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6906,5063,2632,6816,3424,7429,6818,2655,5580,6819,7232,5022,41,7507],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}