DEA: Pot Smurfs are how people are bringing legal marijuana to states where it isn’t legal

Wednesday, January 20th 2021

SAN ANTONIO —

They’re called “Pot Smurfs,” they’re not the blue smurfs like in the picture above, these “Pot Smurfs” are real and law enforcement is arresting more and more of them as some here in Texas travel to states where pot is legal and bring it back to states where it’s not, like Texas.

According to the DEA, “loopers” and “smurfs,” slang for people who go from dispensary to dispensary buying the maximum allowable amount of pot with the intent of selling it illegally across state lines, are making a lot of money.

“What is also occurring the black market marijuana of somebody traveling to one those states legitimately purchasing marijuana from a dispensary going to multiple dispensaries or stores then smuggling that marijuana back into another state,” said Dante Sorianello, the assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in the San Antonio district.

“Smurfing” is going from store-to-store. “Looping” is when a customer keeps coming back to the same pot shop multiple times in a day. Both travel back home where they can mark it all up.

“That creates, I’m not necessarily sure if that’s a black market but it’s an illegal market of an illegal drug and that is coming back and the profit margins are huge as it relates to marijuana there. So we are seeing some traditional organized gangs or criminal groups who traditionally may have distributed other illegal drugs moving into the high-grade marijuana market because of the huge profit margins and the perception that no one is enforcing the marijuana laws or looking at marijuana trafficking like they would of another drug such as cocaine crack methamphetamine or heroin,” said Sorianello.

The DEA says smurfs are definitely making money while taking a huge risk, also making money are law enforcement agencies on the northwestern part of Texas from massive asset seizure funds of the illegal goods they’re confiscating.

In your neighborhoods, on the streets, Fox San Antonio and the DEA will keep you informed and safe.