Agents arrest American selling genetically altered marihuana

SANTO DOMINGO. – The National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD) Friday announced the arrest of a U.S. citizen who sold genetically altered marijuana -practically unknown in the country- brought from California and Florida.

The DNCD said Richard Michael Spelman, 31, who was staying in Cita del Sol hotel in Cabarete, Puerto Plata (north), sold several types of marijuana in Santo Domingo, grown indoors in rented places, and known a "Platinium Kusk, Platinum Og, Lavender and White Widow.”

It said the marijuana seized from Spelman, a native of California, is highly potent because it contains as much as 12 percent of the psychotropic tetrahydrocannabinol, instead of the usual 4 percent. It said experts warn that genetically altered marijuana increases the risk of contracting Alzheimer and easily leads to madness.

DNCD president Rolando Rosado said it’s the first such case uncovered in the country. "It’s a super drug, an extremely harmful vegetable for the organism."

In a statement, the official said cell phones seized from Spelman have the names and numbers people from Puerto Plata and the Capital, whose last names suggest they belong to the upper and upper middle class.

The official added that Spelman was arrested in the bus terminal located on Winston Churchill Av. in the Capital, on information from the United States. “This person was dealing transgenic marijuana, fact that turned out to be true and for which he’ll be charged.”