It's 30 months behind bars for a Seattle father and son duo caught in a long-running illegal marijuana operation. Qixian Wu, 59, and Yong Cong Wu, 30, were sentenced Tuesday after playing their part in an illicit weed-growing scheme that sidestepped Washington state's strict cannabis production regulations, as reported by FOX 13 Seattle.
The U.S. Attorney's Office pulled the curtain back on New Direction, the Wu's operation, which camouflaged itself as a legal venture while skirting necessary protocols involving the tracking and tagging of their product and the application of legal pesticides, a move that has landed them in the joint for two and a half years; this was a joint confirmed by prosecutors, and the operation was based out of West Seattle. The duo didn't measure up to the state's strict guidelines, leading to the unraveling of their under-the-table enterprise, according to FOX 13 Seattle.
The Wu's admitted to conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana back in November 2023, earmarking themselves as players in the game of black market marijuana sales, a statement from U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman underlines the gravity of their criminal conspiracy. Their business model, set up in flagrant defiance of the regulations enshrined by the state of Washington, now leaves them planted in prison soil for the foreseeable future—an exercise in judicial pruning, as per MyNorthwest.com.
