Ari Greenwald, owner of an Albuquerque-based cannabis company, said he had to refinance a rolling machine earlier this year after 15 pounds of expected product was confiscated by federal agents at a checkpoint in Southern New Mexico.
"It basically took a week out of production for us, and we had no way of making the month," said Greenwald, the owner of Impact Farms LLC, noting this brought financial losses to the tune of $250,000.
Eight licensed cannabis operations in New Mexico filed a lawsuit in federal court last week against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the latest development as federal agents have continued to detain industry employees and confiscate state-legal cannabis.
In the suit, state-authorized cannabis businesses cite an "ongoing pattern" of seizures by federal agents at highway checkpoints in New Mexico, resulting in the loss of revenue totaling more than $1 million for the companies.
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