Brooklyn DA to Drop Drug Charges Against Hemp Recipient

Brooklyn, New York’s district attorney will reportedly drop the felony drug charges against the recipient of 106 pounds of hemp arrested earlier this month, according to NBC New York. Ronen Levy was arrested after FedEx tipped off police about the shipment, which was sent from Vermont and tested under legal THC limits.

The shipment was destined for Green Angel CBD – which is owned by Ronen’s brother Oren – but police intercepted the package, arrested Ronen, and lauded the bust on Twitter. At the time of his arrest, Ronen called the cop “hungry” who had thought “he had the bust of the day.”

At the time of the arrest, police were shown paperwork from the farm that cultivated the crop that showed THC content of 0.14 percent – about half of the 0.3 percent federal and state thresholds but a field test performed by police was positive for cannabis.

“We got information about a large package of drugs. We got it in here,” New York City Police Department Chief Terence Monahan said at the time of the bust. “We field tested it as marijuana, called the individual in. He was placed under arrest.”

A FedEx spokesperson told NBC New York that the plants shouldn’t have been shipped through the carrier because hemp is on the company’s prohibited items list. In June, the U.S. Postal Service changed its policies to allow hemp shipping, so long as the products comply with local laws and compliance records are maintained. UPS will also ship hemp products so long as they are not in flower form or originate “from any location that sells marijuana or marijuana products.”

It’s unclear whether law enforcement will return the confiscated products to Levy.