GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The owner and operator of five Michigan dispensaries surrendered to federal authorities Monday after being found guilty in federal court on multiple marijuana charges on Aug. 23.

Danny Trevino, of Lansing, was found guilty on five counts of maintaining a drug-involved premise, as well as multiple counts of manufacturing, distributing, possessing with intent to distribute and possessing an excess of 100 plants of marijuana. He will serve a minimum of 11 years in prison.

Over the past decade, Trevino admittedly owned and operated Hydroworld marijuana dispensaries in five different Michigan cities, including Lansing, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Flint and Mount Pleasant.

A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office stipulated that Trevino’s business “operated far outside the boundaries of not only federal law but also the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act."

Trevino, 47, had prior drug felony convictions involving cocaine and marijuana, according to the statement. They included convictions in 1994 and 2002.

As a previously convicted drug felon, Trevino was not allowed to serve as a caregiver, but only qualified to be a patient under state law. This allowed him under state law — but not federal law — to cultivate up to 12 marijuana plants and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for his own use.

“Instead, Trevino cultivated thousands of marijuana plants and sold hundreds of kilograms of marijuana, generating sales of at least $2.9 million," U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan said in a statement. “Trevino’s storefronts and grow locations were searched by (state) law enforcement at least 16 times between 2010 and 2016. Despite having ample notice that what he was doing was illegal, Trevino always resumed his operations shortly after each search.”

In an interview with MLive, Trevino stated that each time he was charged in state court for his Hydroworld operations, he received a dismissal or a full acquittal on every charge ever levied against him.

"How could I not have been in compliance if I was acquitted and found not guilty,” Trevino said in reference to court appearances in Michigan over the past decade. “We were winning and they didn’t charge us, so we kept going.”

Trevino, as well as his mother, Berta Garcia, believe that he was “selectively prosecuted” by the federal government. Both feel certain that his prosecution was, in part, racially motivated.

“Another Mexican goes to prison and leaves his little girl behind,” Garcia said about her 3-year-old granddaughter, Nani. “She doesn’t understand, she keeps asking why. I keep asking why, the world is asking why him? I know why. ... This is such an injustice.”

“What was I doing that those others weren’t,” Trevino asked. "When they raided me there were 88 dispensaries in Lansing. When the federal agent came to give me a tracking warrant for my car we were standing across the street from one. We were 25 feet from another one and kitty corner from another one.

“What I asked him was this; ‘when you were coming to raid Hydroworld, and you passed these other dispensaries, did you say to yourself, all these other ones are legal and Hydroworld is illegal?’ He said, ‘no I passed them all and said all of them are federally illegal.’”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, in addition to Trevino illegally profiting off of marijuana sales despite not being a caregiver, his business also provided an illegal delivery service in Lansing and Jackson.

On top of that, court documents state, Trevino leased space at his storefronts for other growers to sell marijuana, “effectively creating a marijuana farmers’ market.”

Trevino told MLive that he was aware that he was not legally allowed to be a caregiver as he was not licensed to do so, but said that he always had enough employees on staff that were caregivers.

“I don’t understand where the federal rules are that you have to follow," Trevino said. "If they are just enforcing state law, then why didn’t they just have the state do it then. Everything that happened in state court didn’t matter though, per jury instructions, because this was done in federal court.”

“I’m being looked at like a cocaine dealer, a heroin dealer, a meth dealer,” he said. “They are selling licenses left and right. They have me guilty for 100 plants but Michigan is selling licenses for 1,500 plants medically. Recreational is coming and I’m hearing of places in Muskegon that are going to open up with an unlimited plant county. How is it that I am illegal?"

Trevino said the country is moving forward on marijuana, and that “the only thing that is going backward is me being charged that’s about it."

“What I want to know is what example are they setting," he asked. "They are not really setting an example, they are just putting me away and that’s it. They aren’t taking any marijuana off the street. They aren’t stopping businesses like this from operating. It’s just an ongoing fight. How do you get raided 26 times? How do you keep winning your cases and then get charged federally?”

U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge has a different viewpoint.

“Marijuana remains illegal under federal law,” Birge said. “Although Trevino has long claimed that what he was doing was legal under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, he was not even close to being legal and made a mockery of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act in the process.

“Trevino had ample opportunity to realize the illegal nature of his business under both federal and state law, given the number of times his operations were searched. He would not stop. Perhaps he will get a better understanding of the law behind bars.”