Two Plead Guilty To Offering Drug Paraphernalia For Sale
BOISE, ID - Two Boise men pled guilty this week to charges of offering drug paraphernalia for sale at their business locations. Yoke Fee Chan, 31, and Bradley Berquist, 30, were indicted separately by a federal grand jury in Boise on May 9.
Chan is the owner and operator of Royal Smoke, a business located at 6811 West Fairview Avenue in Boise. Berquist and Gabriel Adam Busby, 37, also of Boise, are co-owners of Twenty After, a business located at 610 North Orchard, Boise. Busby pled guilty to the charge on August 20.
It is against federal law to sell or offer for sale any paraphernalia that is primarily intended or designed for drug use, regardless of whether the seller advises their customers that the paraphernalia is for tobacco use only. The businesses are commonly referred to as a “headshop.”
The investigations that resulted in the convictions, Operation Not for Human Consumption , produced 11 separate indictments charging 16 Treasure Valley individuals for activity at 13 business locations. Charges against the other defendants are pending.
The charge of knowingly and intentionally offering drug paraphernalia for sale is punishable by up to three years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to one year of supervised release.
Chan and Berquist are scheduled to be sentenced on November 13, 2012, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Boise. Busby is set for sentencing on November 1.
Operation Not for Human Consumption includes the cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Drug Enforcement (DEA), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Boise Police Department, Ada County Sheriff’s Office, Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, Nampa Police Department, Meridian Police Department, and the Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office. The U.S. Marshals Service and Idaho State Police provided assistance in arresting the 16 defendants.
