Eureka businessman gets 40-month sentence for marijuana distribution, money laundering | Police Fire

Jeffrey Fillers, whose Eureka-based company The Daily Hybrid LLC obtained a state medical marijuana transportation license, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to launder money, US District Court records show.

Fillers, who also owns part of Melvin Brewing Co. in Eureka, and his brother-in-law Bryan Jones pleaded guilty in Wyoming District Court and were found guilty on June 22nd by Judge Scott. condemned W. Skavdahl, court documents show.

Along with the 40-month prison term, Fillers was fined $ 40,000 and paid $ 2,000 in community restitution. Skavdahl recommended Fillers to be detained near his family in Marion, Illinois, and put on a substance abuse program, according to court records.

The judge also ordered Fillers to “dispose of its stake in The Daily Hybrid LLC and all related companies.” The Daily Hybrid should be located at 337 W. Main Street in Eureka.

Missouri law generally prohibits convicted felons from owning or working for a marijuana business. That excludes people convicted of using marijuana, people convicted of non-violent crimes more than five years ago and not in prison, and people who were released from prison more than five years ago and have not been imprisoned since then convicted of another crime.

Fillers owns a 6.97 percent stake in Melvin Brewing Co., which opened a location in Eureka in June 2019, according to court records.

Melvin Brewing did not respond to questions about the status of fillers in the company.

Jones was sentenced to five years in prison, fined $ 30,000 and paid $ 2,000 in community restitution. The court recommended Jones be detained near his family in Sheridan, Oregon, and enrolled in a substance abuse program “because participation is absolutely critical to successful rehabilitation, given his history of substance abuse and addiction,” the court records said.

Fillers and Jones initially pleaded not guilty and were scheduled for a jury trial that was postponed in March 2020 due to the complexity of the cases and pandemic-related safeguards. However, on February 26, the two men changed their pleading guilty, according to court records.

Gavin James Watt and Todd Dennis Harris were also charged in the case. Watt was sentenced to one month in prison for conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana in April, and Harris was sentenced to 24 months in May for conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana, court records show.

The verdicts were the culmination of a trial that began in October 2016 and ended with indictments in January 2020. The investigation extended to Oregon, Wyoming and Missouri, according to court documents.

The Drug Enforcement Agency opened an investigation on October 31, 2016 against Jones, who lives near Jackson, Wyo, for trafficking in large quantities of marijuana. Jeffrey Fillers Homes LLC, which owned real estate in Tennessee, according to an affidavit accompanying Special Agent Justin Vanderbilt’s criminal complaint with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Authorities seized more than $ 700,000 and about 400 pounds of marijuana, watched Filler’s house and, according to the affidavit, searched his phone, email, and bank records.

Vanderbilt accused Jones of buying marijuana from growers in Oregon or growing his own in locations in Oregon and California. Jones would then ship the marijuana to New York state and the cash proceeds would be driven or flown back, the affidavit said.

Vanderbilt said agents were told in August 2018 that Fillers had laundered drug funds through Jeffrey Fillers Homes and that Fillers intermittently owned land that Jones had used to grow marijuana.

In August 2014, investigators discovered property in Williams, Oregon that was used by Fillers to obtain a $ 303,000 loan from First Community National Bank, and $ 300,000 was given to Teton Law Group by Fillers Homes’ First Community LCC in Jackson, Wyo., Transferred bank account, Vanderbilt said.

Fillers reportedly used that $ 300,000 to invest in Melvin Brewing, Vanderbilt said.

In March 2019, investigators analyzed text messages and emails sent by Jones to an unidentified person suggesting a money laundering program for the drug trafficking organization’s marijuana proceeds that Fillers was using on affidavit for real estate deals in Tennessee.

In November 2019, Fillers received two remittances from Deschutes County Title Co. totaling $ 438,984.87 for the sale of properties in Bend, Oregon that were allegedly used to grow marijuana, the affidavit said.

In August 2019, Fillers received a cash check for $ 56,000 from one of its First Community accounts to Daily Hybrid, which then bought properties on the 300 block of West Main Street in Eureka for $ 1 million, Vanderbilt wrote.