by - Two Virginia drug dealers were caught leaving pounds of marijuana in broad daylight.
- The men ran an Instagram and Telegram page for their marijuana business titled “Gas Bagg”.
- Dealers hid quarter-pound bags of marijuana for customers in Richmond, Virginia, until the feds found out.
Two drug dealers in Virginia were running a marijuana business in broad daylight until federal agents discovered and stumbled upon over 300 pounds of marijuana.
According to court documents first reported by the CourtWatch newsletter, a Richmond, Virginia marijuana dealer put up signs last spring advertising a “Snatch n Grabbb” event. Using the Instagram account “gasbaggkhak”, Richmond residents Marlin Jones and Khaliq Hall ran a commercial operation distributing quarter-pound bags of marijuana around town for customers to find as a prize until the product ended up in the hands of the feds, agents feds claimed in a deposition.
Hall was charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 50 pounds of marijuana, according to court records. No pleas were entered and attorney information was not immediately available. Marlin, although named in the statement, was not charged.
In a February 8, 2023, probable cause filing, an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco alleged that the raid was carried out openly through Hall’s Instagram page. Hall’s page included a link to the encrypted messaging app Telegram, according to the court document, where he interacted with customers on a topic called “Gas Bagg”.
“Send a text message with your name and a picture of you holding your ID to be locked out,” the instructions in the thread read, according to the court documents. Customers received different amounts at prices that Hall claimed were below market prices, including a pound of marijuana for $2,400.
He added that for “Snatch n Grabbb” he would leave bags of marijuana in a random location for customers to retrieve, according to court documents.
In March 2022, federal agents observed one of the discards and confiscated the marijuana after Hall and his associates left the area.
According to the lawsuit, Hall had an LLC registered titled “Gas Bagg LLC,” which he used in his lease application, and he told clients he would be willing to ship marijuana out of state — a move that put him further in the radar. .
Gas Bagg LLC did not immediately return an Insider’s request for comment.
In January 2022, Jones and an associate were stopped at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, arriving from Los Angeles with 50 pounds of vacuum-sealed marijuana in a backpack, according to documents. A month later, Jones was pulled over in Richmond, Virginia, with an associate, and the two had more than $30,000 in cash, according to the affidavit.
Months later, in July 2022, according to the documents, Hall’s apartment was searched, where officers found 300 kilograms of marijuana and smaller amounts of cocaine, oxycodone, psychedelic mushrooms and various weapons.
