Cory Stoneham admits he’s an outlaw running an illegal pot business.

And the owner of Weed the North accepts police raids go with the territory while dispensary operators await pot legislation from the federal government.

But Stoneham believes Toronto Police went “above and beyond their duties,” allegedly causing thousands of dollars in damage while executing a search warrant last month at one of his two booming pot shops in the city.

“If (police) want to conduct a raid, that’s their business. We’ll fight any charges in court,” Stoneham told the Toronto Sun. “But they have no reason to smash the sign off the front of our store ... and rip our decals off of the windows.”

Stoneham opened his first store at 1532 Eglinton Ave. W. last year on April 20 — aka 4/20, the day cannabis users gather to celebrate pot.

At the time, more than 80 such shops had sprouted up in the city prompting cops to launch Project Claudia — a crackdown that saw 43 pot shops raided, including Weed the North.

One of Stoneham’s employees was arrested in that raid, but he said the charges were later withdrawn and all seized property, except the cannabis, returned.

Stoneham, who has a medical marijuana licence for chronic pain, was back up and running the next day and he opened a second location in Kensington Market in July 2016. But he claims he’s still recovering from estimated losses of more than $50,000 in product and legal fees.

While cops continued to execute search warrants regularly at dispensaries after Project Claudia, both Weed the North shops managed to fly under the radar until Jan. 18 when the Eglinton West store was raided again.

This time Stoneham claims police were more destructive.

Four employees were charged with possession of marijuana, trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime. A fifth worker was charged days later.

Stoneham alleged police also damaged his storefront sign and the wrap that covers the front window preventing people from seeing in from the street.

The shop has opened again, but he estimates the damage, legal fees and lost business cost him about $25,000. That doesn’t include the cost of the cannabis seized.

Stoneham also claims police smashed open an ATM, owned by a third party, then added the nearly $10,000 from the machine to the $10,000 taken from the shop when they announced publicly that $20,000 in cash was seized as proceeds of crime.

Although Toronto Police spokesman Pugash said he was unable to comment on the ATM allegations, he admitted the shop’s window wrap ripped when officers tried to collect it as evidence.

But he maintained cops did not smash Weed the North’s storefront sign.

“The sign was seized as part of the search warrant,” Pugash said. “It is intact and in our custody.”

However, photos snapped after the raid show a piece of the sign hanging from the frame above the shop, suggesting it was damaged.

Meanwhile, hours after the Toronto Sun questioned police about the Weed the North raids, Stoneham received a call from police telling him to surrender so he could be charged with offences similar to those faced by his employees — even though he wasn’t at the store the night of the raid. He turned himself in at 13 Division Friday, was processed then released.

Toronto lawyer Selwyn Pieters, who has been critical of the dispensary raids, said dispensary operators can launch a civil action for any damages that occur during a raid.

“A search warrant doesn’t authorize police to damage property,” he said. “It simply authorizes police to enter the premises, so if they damage property they have to pay for it.

Showdown in the wild west of pot shops

The showdown between cops and illegal pot shops — with gun-toting bandits in the middle pulling off weekly heists — is putting innocent lives in jeopardy.

As the city feels its way through the wild west-era of marijuana legalization, Toronto Police and the dispensary industry recognize they must find a way to work together before someone ends up dead.

“This is an unusual situation,” Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash said recently. “Despite what people in the industry say, there is no grey area. These businesses are operating illegally and not paying taxes.”

In the last seven months of 2016, there were nine pot shop heists in the city. In the first six weeks of this year, six dispensaries have been robbed. And not only is the frequency of such holdups increasing, the bandits are becoming more violent.

Staff and customers have been pistol-whipped and stabbed. In some cases, shots have been fired inside the shops, including one robbery late last month where the crooks were locked inside by an employee and tried to blast their way out through the front door.

“These dispensaries are in high traffic areas and the animals committing these robberies don’t care about innocent members of the public,” said Staff-Insp. Mike Earl, who heads up the force’s holdup squad.

With large amounts of cash and pot on hand, and barely half of the robberies being reported by dispensary operators, he said bandits see the shops as easy targets.

Although the number of dispensaries in Toronto have been cut in half since cops began raiding the shops last spring, most stores can afford to re-open immediately afterward.

And Toronto lawyer Selwyn Pieters insists laying criminal charges is “an exercise in futility” because many of those arrested end up with a slap on the wrist or their charges withdrawn.

He suggested it would be better if city bylaw officers issued fines while police officers devoted their energies to combatting the robberies.

“We’re spending hundreds of thousands of public dollars on prosecutions that go nowhere,” Pieters said. “There has to be common sense as to how our laws are enforced.”

Pot shop employee faces charges

Sean McNabb claims he wasn’t working when his employer’s illegal pot shop — Weed the North — was raided last month, yet he still faces charges.

The 32-year-old accused Toronto Police of overstepping their bounds by searching his girlfriend’s home following a Jan. 18 dispensary raid. Investigators also put out a warrant for his arrest and nabbed him at Pearson airport as he returned from a brief trip to the U.S.

“I was treated like a wanted fugitive over a minor possession charge, even though I had nothing on me,” McNabb said recently, adding he also has a medical marijuana licence.

After executing a search warrant at Weed the North, McNabb claims police raided his girlfriend’s home while she was there with their two young kids — a four-year-old son and two-month-old daughter.

“They violated my family,” he said.

McNabb alleged cops seized about $2,000 in cash, Weed the North apparel, drug paraphernalia and possibly a small amount of weed. He was charged with pot possession, trafficking and proceeds of crime and spent a night in jail before being released on bail.

Police dispute McNabb’s account of his arrest but refused to discuss the case because it’s before the courts.

Paralegal Raymond Lee Hathaway, who was at McNabb’s bail hearing, believes the charges will eventually be withdrawn.

“He didn’t have actual possession of anything at the time of his arrest and yet he’s charged with charges that go hand-in-hand with having possession,” Hathaway said, adding he suspects cops believed McNabb was the shop’s owner.

Hathaway also maintained shutting down dispensaries only serves to benefit the former politicians and others tied to some of Canada’s 38 licensed providers of medical marijuana that stand to make a lot of money when pot legalized for recreational use.

Big names tied to pot industry

Some big names, mostly former politicians, have ties to licensed providers of medical marijuana that are poised to hit the jackpot when pot is legalized for recreational use:

•Kim Derry is a longtime friend of MP Bill Blair — the Trudeau government’s point man on pot legislation — who served as a deputy chief when Blair was Toronto Police chief and is now the security adviser for THC Meds Ontario.

•Former Ontario deputy premier George Smitherman, who once served as the province’s health minister, is also tied to THC Meds Ontario.

•Former prime minister John Turner is a board member for Muilboom Organic Inc.

•Former premier Ernie Eves is the chairman of Timeless Herbal Care, a Jamaican medical marijuana company. Former Toronto lawyer Courtney Betty is the company’s CEO.

•Former BC premier Mike Harcourt is the chairman of True Leaf Medicine Inc.

•Chuck Rifici founded Tweed Marijuana Inc., the country’s first licence provider to go public, while he was CFO of the Liberal Party of Canada.

cdoucette@postmedia.com