U.S. Attorney's Office Requests Charges Dropped Against Attorney
DENVER (CBS4)- The U.S. Attorney's office in Denver is asking that charges be dropped against David Furtado, a Denver attorney who has been charged in a high dollar money laundering case.
The case centers on whether four defendants used money from Colombia to illegally infiltrate Colorado's legalized marijuana industry.
Furtado was accused of taking Colombian cash to put into a business as a front to buy a marijuana grow facility. Furtado asked to have his charges dismissed because the State of Colorado has legalized marijuana but the drug remains illegal under federal law.
No reason was given for the prosecution's request to drop the charges, but CBS4 has learned Furtado forfeited $450,000 that was found in his trunk.
It was 2013 when federal agents conducted a series of raids on medical marijuana dispensaries and grow facilities including VIP Cannabis at Federal Boulevard and Alameda in Denver.
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Four people were arrested including Colombian Hector Diaz. He pleaded guilty last year. He was famously pictured in a photo wearing a Drug Enforcement Administration hat and holding weapons.
Denver attorney David Furtado is still charged with taking money from Colombia to be put into a business as a front to buy a marijuana grow facility.
CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger spoke previously with a woman who was to be a witness in the case against Furtado.
She said, "I feel that I was drug into something I should not have been drug into. I feel I was taken advantage of financially as well as many other ways."
One other defendant in the case, Luis Uribe, is to be sentenced Tuesday.
CBS4's Rick Sallinger is a Peabody award winning reporter who has been with the station more than two decades doing hard news and investigative reporting. Follow him on Twitter @ricksallinger.
