(Reuters) - Federal agents and police raided state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries across western Washington on Tuesday, targeting storefronts deemed to be engaged in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.
The dispensaries singled out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were essentially operating under the state's medical marijuana law to conceal criminal activity, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
Federal officials did not immediately disclose the number of suppliers shut down in the sweep.
But the Cannabis Defense Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group for marijuana, said on its website that 15 "medical cannabis access points" in at least six western Washington cities -- Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Puyallup, Lacey and Rochester -- were raided on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Durkan's office, Emily Langlie, said one person was arrested by federal agents, and that additional arrests had been made by sheriff's deputies in separate raids across three counties although she could not say how many.
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