California police last week personally handed over $800,000 worth of marijuana to a dealer, months after the department illegally seized a trove of the goods.
Costa Mesa police and other city officials on Thursday reluctantly returned more than 100 pounds of bud, e-cigarette boxes and other marijuana paraphernalia to Se7enleaf as part of a settlement reached last month with the owner.
The months-long battle over the product is finally over, but co-owner Michael Musali said the damage to his business has already been done.
“What they did essentially ruined my business,” Musali told the Post on Wednesday.
“We have lost a customer. We are currently in a situation where we may not be able to stay at one of our two properties because of the financial burden we have to deal with. We are trying to repair as much as possible and save our business millions of dollars in damage and delays.”
The story begins on Sept. 7, when Costa Mesa authorities stormed Se7enleaf’s facility and aggressively raided its inventory, leading Musali and partner Matteo Tabib to sell products to their second budding business, High Seas. It started when the company accused the company of using an existing business to deliver the products.
Investigators claimed that neither Se7enleaf nor High Seas had the proper licenses to make deliveries, but Moussari stressed that he and Tabib used third-party vendors who had the proper permits to make deliveries. .
Musari said High Seas was in the process of getting cannabis business license approval at the time and was awaiting final approval.
He added that the city’s confusion over the operation was not due to Mr. Moussari and Mr. Tabib’s attempt to evade legal recourse, but due to a lack of due diligence by investigators.
“They broke in, raided and destroyed Se7enleaf’s business,” the co-owner said.
Mr. Moussari and Mr. Tabib sued the city just a few weeks later, but at this point it is clear that they took appropriate steps to deliver the product, but they were not “coerced” by Costa Mesa officials to reach a settlement of the lawsuit. “It was done,” he claimed.
The city refused to approve the high seas permit, arguing that it could not do so until the study on Sea Seven Reef was completed, which Moussali and Tabib acknowledged could take years.
Mr. Moussari and Mr. Tabib felt they had no choice but to settle with Costa Mesa because their business was rapidly losing money every second they fought for permits.
In exchange for the return of the product, the business partner will pay the legal costs.
“They effectively held the high seas permit hostage through a quote-unquote investigation, and over the next few months we made it clear to them that we were not doing anything illegal. Everything was done through the right licenses and by the right license holders,” Musali said.
Despite illegally busting the cannabis business, police and city officials have made it clear that they are not satisfied with returning Se7enleaf’s products, even though the city has taken control of the situation.
During last week’s handover, employees reported hearing repeated claims from one of the lead sergeants that Se7enleaf was operating illegally.
Musali said the comments were not a surprise and were just a continuation of the behavior of officials throughout the raids, investigations and legal disputes.
“They were so arrogant. They were so aggressive,” he recalled.
The months-long battle with the city cost Mr. Moussari and Mr. Tabib not only thousands of dollars in legal fees, but untold millions of dollars in potential business.
Several other cannabis boutiques have sprung up since the raid in September, robbing the two businesses as they struggle to obtain permits.
“We were bullied in this process. We were blackmailed in this process because the only way the city was going to settle was to pay for the legal costs and fees and fees and this mess they caused.” Because they told us that we are to pay for everything related to it,” Musali said.
The city of Costa Mesa declined the Post’s request for comment.
