Empyreal, a Pennsylvania company that transports cash for dispensaries, convenience stores and other clients in 28 states, relies on banks and credit unions to do the federally mandated due diligence on marijuana outfits whose cash it carries, said Deirdra O’Gorman, Empyreal’s chief executive. The company checks state licensing records to verify compliance, she said.
The next morning, the DEA put the driver under surveillance as she made her stops in Kansas City. On her way back through Kansas, the same sheriff’s deputy stopped her again on I-70. This time, the deputy seized the more than $165,000 in cash that the driver had collected at five state-licensed dispensaries in Missouri.
The deputy got a state Superior Court judge to sign a search warrant authorizing the seizure of currency, electronics and any other evidence of illegal transport of “marijuana proceeds.”