U.S. citizen gets 5 years for dealing transgenic marijuana

Santo Domingo. – U.S. citizen Michael Richard Spelman, in October, 2011 with a backpack full of transgenic marijuana, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined RD$50,000 in a National District court.

He was found guilty of violating Controlled Substances Law by 4th Appellate Court presiding judge Pilar Rufino, on charges of possessing 21 packets of marijuana.

Spelman, 31, and a professional model from California, was arrested by the National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) in the capital’s downtown Churchill Av., with 18 packets, while a subsequent search of a Cabarete, Puerto Plata hotel turned up three more.

The DNCD said Spelman, arrested at a busy bus stop, sold the ??genetically manipulated and powerful marijuana to special customers in the Dominican Republic, where the variety is virtually unknown.