Tax Raid Hits Cannabis Collective Jungle Boys, Seize Cash, Including Tip Jars

TLC a store run by Jungle Boys, a famous cannabis brand, was raided by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) on March 1 when they nabbed over $66,000 which the company had already disputed, reported High Times.

What happened?

“At five o’clock in the evening, we’re all sitting inside of the shop (...) We look up at the camera and see one car, two cars, three cars, four cars, and are like ‘holy shit (...) We started seeing a round-up of all our employees into the front lobby area and were like, ‘are we fucking raided?,” Ivan Vanorwick, from Jungle Boys told High Times reporter Jimi Devine.

When two armed police officers told Vanorwick “to get to the fucking ground,” he realized, yes, the shop was being raided.

He found out that, despite paying $18 million in taxes, the raid was triggered by a fine discrepancy, dating back to the pandemic, when dispensaries were not able to pay taxes in cash.

The CDTFA seized $174,000 from the shop and even emptied the budtender’s tip jars.

“This is our standard procedure for cannabis businesses or any business. We’re not singling out any industry or type of business. If you owe taxes in California, we do our best to collect what is due,” the CDTFA told High Times.

Photo by Ryan Lange on Unsplash.