The 27-year-old [Bryan Smith] ran R & R Wellness Collective, a south Sacramento dispensary registered as a nonprofit medical marijuana provider.
But U.S. prosecutors say the young dispensary boss was part of a lucrative conspiracy involving multiple growing houses, stolen electricity, pot distribution to Southern California and vast wads of cash.
In a Sept. 12 criminal complaint against Smith and five others, authorities suggested Smith courted a medical marijuana high life and boasted of his success in a video said to be an attempt at an audition tape for the MTV program "True Life."
Smith's attorney, Mark Reichel, said his client is an honest businessman with no criminal record who was trying to operate a city-licensed dispensary "lawfully as a nonprofit" under state law.
R & R Wellness is one of 38 establishments allowed to operate under Sacramento's medical marijuana rules, which include business and licensing fees and a medical marijuana tax, approved last year.
Sacramento Bee, 9/25/11; news10.net, 9/16/11; criminal complaint.