The Abingdon man who police say has owned multiple cannabis-related Zarati shops in Southwest Virginia pleaded no contest Thursday to money laundering and drug charges, but he will serve no prison time.
Aaron Ramon Miller, 37, who entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors, was sentenced to five years each on charges of money laundering, distribution and possession with intent to distribute up to 5 pounds of marijuana and nonviolent felony possession of a gun.
Washington County Circuit Judge Eric Thiessen then suspended the prison sentences and said Miller will serve three years of supervised probation under the agreement.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Josh Cumbow said the terms of the agreement were appropriate because Miller offered “substantial assistance” to authorities and accepted responsibility for his actions.
Miller must, however, forfeit $405,840 in cash and other items seized from the Zarati shops, including the one in Abingdon, and from his home during a September 2023 raid of dozens of cannabis stores in nine Southwest Virginia counties. The other items he agreed to forfeit included several vehicles, including two Rolls-Royces, the judge said.
It’s not clear whether Miller still owns any of the stores; that was not discussed during the hearing.
Miller, who was represented by attorneys David Damico of Roanoke and Noell Tin of North Carolina, did not speak other than to answer questions from the judge. He waived an arraignment.
So far, the charges against Miller are the first to be brought against a store owner in connection to the raids and investigation. The searches were conducted by the Virginia State Police and county law enforcement agencies stretching from Scott to Roanoke counties.
Scott County officials did file drug charges against 13 people in Southwest Virginia in connection to the raids.
Cumbow said Thursday that the investigation was originally a federal case, but it was dropped at the last minute, so state and local prosecutors and police decided to move forward with it.
Cannabis stores have been popular in Southwest Virginia since 2021, the year the state approved possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use but failed to approve a retail market.
When Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected governor, he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with the sale of cannabis, and even bipartisan efforts to establish a retail market have failed.
No details of what led to the charges against Miller were discussed during the hearing. A copy of the plea agreement could not be obtained from either the commonwealth’s attorney or the court clerk’s office Thursday afternoon.
In unsealed search warrant affidavits related to the September 2023 raid, an investigator states that based on a review of bank records, some of the cannabis stores searched had a “pattern of money laundering into and out of the bank accounts.” He also said the money came from the illegal sale of marijuana.
The amounts of money “going through” the accounts far exceeded the incomes reported to the Virginia Employment Commission, the investigator said.
“My review of the total bank accounts involved in this operation puts the amounts run through the banks in the neighborhood of $9 million dollars being run through the accounts as of this writing [and] continue to this date,” he wrote in two search warrant affidavits.
The search warrants also state that a network of Zarati shops was sold as franchises, and one owner had more than 20 stores that had been renamed the Good Vibes Shops and are located between Bristol and Woodbridge. The stores were registered to the same Saltville address, according to the documents.
The search warrant affidavits also state that Miller opened the Abingdon Zarati shop at its original location on Village Boulevard in November 2021 and then moved it to its current location off Lee Highway south of Abingdon.
Many of the cannabis stores, sometimes called “adult share” stores, have tried to take advantage of the confusion surrounding the law in Virginia with buying, gifting, sharing and membership schemes. Most recently, there has been more outright selling of the products.
In April 2023, state Attorney General Jason Miyares issued an opinion that the gifting of marijuana contingent upon the purchase of another item is illegal. That opinion also says that neither an establishment’s status as a private club nor the source of its marijuana is material to whether it or the customers are distributing marijuana unlawfully.
The attorney general has no general criminal enforcement power over violations of the state’s marijuana laws, but Miyares said earlier this year that law enforcement should crack down on the stores that are selling marijuana products.
Although a few stores closed immediately after the searches, many more have since opened.
On Thursday afternoon, the former Zarati store in Abingdon appeared to be open and a new sign with the name the Abingdon Shop was attached to the front of the building.