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Escambia Businessmen Convicted On Federal Spice Charges
July 6, 2019
Benjamin Galecki, former Pensacon CEO, and Burton Ritchie, former owner of The Psychedelic Shack in Pensacola, were convicted in federal court in Nevada on 24 counts related to manufacture of synthetic cannabinoids, commonly known as “spice”.
According to the evidence presented during the 10 day trial, Ritchie, 48, of now Park City, Utah, and Galecki, 44, of Pensacola, committed these crimes in the District of Nevada, from March 21 to July 25, 2012. The evidence showed that Ritchie and Galecki were the owners and managers of Zencense Incenseworks, a company that manufactured smokable synthethic spice and marketed their products as “potpourri,” “incense,” and “aromatherapy.”
They were convicted by a federal jury of operating a continuing criminal enterprise, manufacturing and possessing with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and controlled substance analogues, money laundering, mail and wire fraud, and related charges.
Ritchie and Galcki rented a warehouse in Las Vegas for the sole purpose of manufacturing spice products which contained the dangerous chemical XLR-11, which the jury found to be a controlled substance analogue. Ritchie and Galecki ordered XLR-11 from chemical suppliers in China and Hong Kong. At the Las Vegas warehouse, a Zencense employee mixed the XLR-11 with acetone, liquid flavoring and applied the chemical mixture to dried plant material. The warehouse employee mailed the compounded spice in draw string garbage bags to Ritchie and Galecki in Pensacola, Florida, where other workers placed the spice into small retail bags. The defendants sold their products with suggestive brand names including, “Bizarro,” “Orgazmo,” “Headhunter,” and “Defcon 5 Total Annihilation,” to smoke shops across the United States. From June 1 to July 25, 2012, Ritchie and Galecki were responsible for manufacturing and distributing approximately 4,000 pounds of spice and grossed more than $1.6 million dollars in sales.
The minimum penalty for a continuing criminal enterprise is 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The penalties for the controlled substance analogue, wire fraud, mail fraud, and six money laundering counts each carry a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment.
Comments
7 Responses to “Escambia Businessmen Convicted On Federal Spice Charges”
Spice ruined my life! The devil himself took control of my life. I was addicted to this demon for 11 months before I was saved by local law enforcement. I got arrested and served 13 months in jail. The first 2 weeks were a near death experience while I suffered through my withdrawal stage feeling as if I was literally dying. The pain was unbearable and I wanted to die. Before I met this version of the devil, I knew him on another level and sold the devil. We got along great! I use to sale spice to everyone. When you’re a “spicer”, you know everyone else who smokes spice and you’re all known as a community. The spice community!! I made so much money. “Life was good”… all until the devil and I switched positions. Spice ruined my life! I hate spice. You couldn’t pay me any amount of money to ever smoke or sale the devil again.
Good for the Federal government. I know several young people who have used spice.
It is as bad as some of the other mind altering drugs available. Some of these young people when using spice become mean, spiteful and at times dangerous to themselves and others. It reacts different with each individual. They should arrest the individuals who bought it from this ones arrested to sell to others. There would be a lot of people across the USA in jail if this happened. Talk about overcrowding.
I had a conversation with Ben about “spice” being legal. He really thought what he was doing was legal. The law has a different idea about things. All natural herbs should be legal and this wouldn’t be a problem. There are many items available for people that are known to do harm to the user but they know how to lobby lawmakers to make their poison pass the law test. All in the tobacco and alcohol industry should be on notice also. Chose your poison.
re:Rono,
I guess it is just a matter of convenience that the charges they were arrested for stem from that year while they were in the process of shutting down that enterprise that they had sold?
You can question the ethics of Burton’s choices but his effort was to work within the Laws not to skirt them. The Laws changed and he was working to be compliant. Which is one of the reasons he sold that business. It would be my guess that the business also shipped novelties like what was sold in his local retail business.
The timing of the charges against Burton right next to the passing of the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 really stinks.
Burton is a good guy who worked to comply with the laws, paid his taxes, created jobs and helped people in his community. Having Burton locked up may be a notch in the belt of some prosecutor but society is lessened because of it.
Henry, get your facts straight:
On July 10, 2012, President Barack Obama signed the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 into law. It banned synthetic compounds commonly found in synthetic marijuana, placing them under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
They unlike you knew they were “skirting the law”. Key word in the conviction was “continuing”.
re:rance,
How did they skirt the law? The got ahold of the DEA and said “this is what we want to sell and this is how we want to sell it. We don’t want to break the law. Is this legal? They were told it was legal to sell how they were selling it.
The reason that spice poison had a market is because some people don’t like the legal alcohol poison and marijuana prohibition exists. That being said, I’m not sure it is appropriate to call what they sold spice because it had a different chemical makeup than the stuff that was called spice at that time.
What bothers me is the hypocrisies in the law and in society when it comes to the drug alcohol, a mind and mood altering substance, not being treated the same as all the other mind and mood altering substances.
I don’t use any mind or mood altering substances but I support the right for people to make their own choices and for those same people to be accountable for their own choices.
If someone goes and abuses alcohol and then gets in a vehicle and kills themself or someone else, using this case scenario as an example we would be putting the manufactures of the alcohol behind bars like we have done with Ritchie and Galeki. I’m sure the reader would suggest that it’s not the same because selling alcohol is not illegal. What Galeki and Ritchie were selling at the time and the chemical make up of that item, was also not illegal.
Give them the max sentence they produce and peddle poison – evidently for years and skirting the law over their own greed and no regard for what that poison would do to people – time they were removed from society to rot in a prison cell…