West Hollywood Marijuana Dispensary The Farmacy Robbed of Weed, Cash: Three Suspects Quickly Nabbed

By Dennis Romero Mon., Nov. 28 2011 at 7:06 AM

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The Farmacy.

Correction after the jump: A dispensary worker says the suspects were tracked via a stolen smartphone and that they were previously unknown to the shop.

Three men were arrested after a brazen robbery of West Hollywood's well-known marijuana dispensary called The Farmacy over the weekend.

The heist happened Saturday at 8:03 p.m. in the 7000 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, according to a statement from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. (The Farmacy is at 7825 Santa Monica Boulevard).

The armed robbers allegedly tied or handcuffed store workers while they took cash, weed and victims' cellphones.

The sheriff's department:

One suspect held six employees at gunpoint while two other suspects secured the victims' hands, took them to the rear of the business and ordered them to lie on the ground; the store manager was ordered to open the safe.

~~We have a feeling the victims knew the bad guys though, because~~ Cops were quickly on their tail.

[Fixed]: An angry caller alerted us to the fact that the shop did not know who these suspects were. A worker (not the angry caller) at the Farmacy subsequently said the suspects were tracked via an app on an android phone one of them allegedly took, and that store workers did the tracking themselves, letting cops know the results.

We didn't mean to imply that the shop would be associated with allegedly bad people, just that they might have recognized who they were (possibly customers or people who cased the place?). Our bad.

Said angry caller also said bail was a lot more. We only know what the sheriff's department told us, but we wouldn't doubt it if that fact might have changed.

Deputies found the suspects at a residence in Lancaster, the department says. The victims were actually taken there to ID the alleged robbers.

A subsequent search-warrant raid helped authorities come up with some of the stolen goods and the cellphones, deputies say.

The suspects were ID'd by the sheriff's department as:

-Derrick Devon Jones, 30. He was arrested on suspicion of robbery and kidnapping and was held without bail for a parole violation.

-Willie David Johnson, 35. He was also arrested on suspicion of robbery and kidnapping. His bail was set at $100,000.

-Terrence Terrill Brown, 29. Same deal: Suspicion of robbery and kidnapping, $100,000 bail.

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The Farmacy, one of only four dispensaries legally allowed to operate in Weho as far as we can tell, was the subject of a federal raid in 2007. Read more about that here.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com/@LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

dispensaries, dispensary crime, marijuana, pot shops, robbery, the farmacy, west hollywood

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malcolmkyle

An appeal to all Prohibitionists:

Most of us are aware by now that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high, 'no matter what.' So why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future. If you remotely believe that people will one day quit using any of these 'at present' illegal drugs, then you are exhibiting a degree of naivety parallel only with those poor deluded wretches who voluntarily drank the poisoned Kool-Aid in Jonestown.

Even if you cannot stand the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and over a trillion dollars on this dangerous farce. Practically everybody is now aware that Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. So why do you wish to continue with a policy that has proven itself to be a poison in the veins of our once so proud & free nation? Do you actually think you may have something to lose If we were to start basing drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?

Maybe you're a police officer, a prison guard or a local politician. Possibly you're scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, the many kick-backs and those regular fat bribes. But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies, vats of acid and marauding thugs carrying gold-plated AK-47s with leopard-skinned gunstocks?

Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your sycophantic prohibition-engendered mayhem.

Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!

Michael Larsen

malcomkyle, the only group that has consistently resisted regulation has been the post-ico pot shops and the pro-pot lobby Americans for Safe Access (ASA). We had an ordinance in place in LA that would have legitimized and regulated 100 shops. The shops that were not eligible and ASA barraged the city with lawsuits in order to stop the regulation. They succeeded. The only thing that stopped regulation in LA was greedy pot shop owners that didn't want to be regulated. Now their lawsuits have resulted in a court decision which prohibits LA from regulating at all, except for a total ban. If you stopped your delusional conspiracy theories for a moment and paid attention, you'd realize who your REAL opponents are.