Beverly Hills Police Help Bust Pot Ring

Three Los Angeles residents were arrested Monday and four marijuana dispensaries searched in connection with an alleged conspiracy involving large-scale cannabis sales.

The operation was the culmination of a four-year federal-state investigation into an organized criminal enterprise that distributed marijuana throughout the United States and employed gang members as enforcers, according to an alert from the Beverly Hills Police Department's Lt. Lincoln Hoshino.

Beverly Hills police assisted with the operation, along with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Secret Service.

Hoshino's alert also said the organization operated multiple retail marijuana dispensaries, and utilized violence and intimidation to expand and halt competition. Andrew Kramer, 38, Rene Johnson, 50, and Jonathan Livingston, 43, were taken into custody, Hoshino said, and collectively face a total of 46 felony counts.

Search warrants were executed at Zen and Alternative Herbal Health Services, both dispensaries located on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood; La Brea Compassionate Caregivers, on North La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles; and Marina Caregivers on Washington Boulevard in Marina del Rey, according to Hoshino's alert.

The alert says that over the course of the investigation, detectives seized millions in cash and proceeds in connection with the conspiracy.