Feds crack down on pot candy firm - 4 tied to business are charged EAST BAY 4 people tied to firm charged with growing marijuana

Tainted Inc. started in 2001 as a boutique business in Oakland that cooked marijuana leaves in butter and made chocolate truffles, federal authorities say.

Over time, it got a lot bigger. In the last couple of years, authorities say, it bought chocolate by the ton as it produced pot-laced candy with names playing off those of popular legal treats: Buddafinga, Mr. Greenbud, Stoners.

Four people linked to the business were charged in Oakland federal court Thursday with growing marijuana that became the not-so-secret ingredient in treats resembling the popular candy bars and other packaged food, including cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, granola bars and even barbecue sauce.

"Kids and parents need to be careful in case kids get ahold of this candy. Halloween is coming up," Javier Pena, special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco, said as he displayed products seized from the company.

Authorities said Tainted Inc. grew into an enterprise that supplied marijuana-laced candies to cannabis clubs in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Amsterdam. The company also has distributed ecstasy and cocaine, DEA Special Agent William Armstrong wrote in an affidavit.

Over the past two years, Tainted Inc. bought nearly 4 tons of chocolate from Guittard Chocolate Co. in Burlingame for more than $14,000, Armstrong wrote. Tainted's candies and other food items sold for $2.50 to $20 apiece, depending on the strength of the product, authorities said.

The investigation bears similarities to DEA raids in Oakland last year in which five people connected with a company called Beyond Bomb were convicted of making marijuana-laced treats with names like Munchy Way, Rasta Reece's and Puff-a-Mint Pattie.

Federal prosecutors charged Tainted Inc.'s alleged owner, 33-year-old Michael Martin of El Sobrante, with conspiracy to manufacture or distribute controlled substances. Also accused of those charges were the operation's manager, Jessica Sanders, 30, of San Leandro, and couriers Michael Anderson, 42, of Oakland and Diallo McLinn, 35, of Oakland, authorities said.

Martin is a fugitive; the other three defendants appeared Thursday in U.S. District Court in Oakland. U.S. Magistrate Wayne Brazil released them on bond and ordered them back to court Oct. 19 after warning them not to use drugs.

He took note of Proposition 215, the initiative approved in 1996 by state voters that legalized growing and using marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation. But he said the defendants couldn't use marijuana even under the terms of that law.

"Too bad," Brazil said, noting that the three face federal charges and that federal law bars all forms of marijuana use. "Take it to your congressman."

"This appears to represent, once again, the federal government taking umbrage with the fact that California has legalized medical marijuana for medical patients," Sanders' attorney, Randolph Daar, said outside court.

Attorneys for McLinn and Anderson had no comment, nor did McLinn's father, Osha Neumann, a longtime peace activist from Berkeley.

Drug agents conducted surveillance of the suspects for several months, Armstrong's affidavit said. On Wednesday, they searched homes or warehouses on the 900 block of 61st Street, where Tainted Inc. products were made; the 300 block of 40th Street in North Oakland, where an alleged marijuana-growing operation was located; Martin's home on the 3300 block of Brentwood Avenue in El Sobrante; Anderson and McLinn's home on the 4100 block of Howe Street in Oakland; and Sanders' home on the 600 block of Black Pine Drive in San Leandro. During the raids, investigators seized hundreds of marijuana products, 460 marijuana plants, a handgun, an undetermined amount of cash and a 2005 GMC truck, Pena said.

While arresting Sanders, an agent shot and paralyzed her Doberman pinscher, her boyfriend said. A DEA official said the incident is under investigation.