Denver’s string of dispensary burglaries has hit its courtroom end. On Wednesday, a Denver judge sentenced the final defendant in a multi-month dispensary-and-stolen-car ring to 16 years in prison, after a guilty plea under Colorado’s organized-crime statute, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said Demonie Young-Anderson pleaded guilty to violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and was given a 16-year term. His three co-defendants, Jeurray Ivory, Terry White and Anthony Matherson, had already been sentenced to 20, 15, and 12 years, respectively. Authorities say the four were part of a crew that carried out about 40 burglaries and auto thefts targeting marijuana dispensaries and other cannabis businesses between December 2023 and February 2024.
“These convictions and sentences dismantled an organized crime ring that engaged in a string of serious crimes across Denver in 2023 and 2024,” Denver District Attorney John Walsh said. He credited prosecutors, detectives, analysts, and the Regional Anti‑Violence Enforcement Network for the outcome, noting that Senior Deputy District Attorneys Michael Mahon and Phil Basciano led the prosecution. The DA’s office said Denver Police detectives and a task‑force investigator from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office also worked the case, according to the release.
How investigators say the ring worked
Investigators and court records indicate the crew used stolen vehicles to drive to storefronts, quickly grab cash and retail marijuana, and move on before officers could respond. Similar groups in the Denver area have used social media to coordinate thefts and fence stolen cannabis products, with multi-agency investigations tying dozens of dispensary burglaries in 2022 and 2023 to organized crews. Westword reported that in some cases, law enforcement recovered large amounts of stolen merchandise and even entire ATMs from targeted shops.
Legal implications
Young-Anderson’s plea to violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, the state racketeering law that operates similarly to federal RICO, centered on a pattern of criminal activity tied to an enterprise. Under the cited Colorado provisions for COCCA, C.R.S. 18-17-104 and 18-17-105, a conviction is a class 2 felony and can bring enhanced penalties, including fines and forfeiture of proceeds. The full statutory language is available in the Colorado Revised Statutes via Justia.
Prosecutors framed the outcome as a major disruption of a crew that repeatedly targeted cash-heavy, state-legal cannabis businesses. With this final sentence in place, the local criminal prosecutions tied to the late-2023 investigation are effectively wrapped.
