LOS ANGELES, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The former owner of a chain of medical-marijuana shops in California has pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.
Federal organized-crime prosecutors arrested Larry Kristich, 65, last summer in connection with the distribution of more than 15,000 pounds of marijuana through seven outlets in the San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas from 2002 through 2005.
Kristich pleaded guilty late Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom to one count each of promotional money laundering and maintaining a drug-involved premises. He is to be sentenced April 21.
The U.S. attorney's office said in a statement that Kristich's Compassionate Caregivers operation at one time employed some 200 people and grossed $95 million over the years.
"Kristich's operation was nothing more than a lucrative drug-trafficking operation," said Tom O'Brien, the U.S. attorney for the Los Angeles area.
Two co-defendants in the case are to go on trial next week. It wasn't known if Kristich would testify against them.
