{"id":94366,"date":"2019-04-23T13:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foreclosure-actions-delayed-on-properties-tied-to-pot-bust\/"},"modified":"2019-04-23T13:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T19:40:00","slug":"foreclosure-actions-delayed-on-properties-tied-to-pot-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foreclosure-actions-delayed-on-properties-tied-to-pot-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreclosure actions delayed on properties tied to pot bust"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Law
Law enforcement officers raided several properties in connection with a suspected illegal marijuana growing operation in August 2018.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Responses to foreclosure actions against three properties associated with a suspected illegal marijuana-growing operation in Montezuma County have been extended into mid-June.<\/p>\n

The three properties are the Ocean Pearl Restaurant on Main Street in Cortez, a home on South Chestnut Street in Cortez and a farm on Montezuma County Road V in Lewis.<\/p>\n

Mike McLachlan, who represents Qi Wu, who operates Ocean Pearl and has power of attorney over all three properties, said forfeiture of the farm, 21875 Road V, is being sought by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

He said he is negotiating with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office on forfeiture of the house at 316 S. Chestnut St.<\/p>\n

However, he said the Ocean Pearl restaurant, 300 E. Main St., is not under threat of federal forfeiture.<\/p>\n

In addition, McLachlan said the restaurant and the house are current on mortgage payments. Only the farm is not current on its mortgage, he said.<\/p>\n

A response to the foreclosure actions has been extended until June 18, he said.<\/p>\n

All three properties were among a handful of sites raided by multiple agencies in August 2018 in connection to a Chinese or Chinese-speaking drug ring under investigation since a large raid in Rifle in 2016, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

The grantors listed on the foreclosure notices are Jimmy Dang and Qi Yu Wu, who were both arrested and charged in U.S. District Court with manufacture and possession with intent to distribute 1,000 or more marijuana plants, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Dang is Qi Wu\u2019s husband, and Qi Yu Wu is Qi Wu\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n

Qi Wu has not been arrested in connection with the suspected illegal marijuana operation.<\/p>\n

According to legal notices, the reason listed for the Lewis farm\u2019s foreclosure is \u201cDefault in payments and other Violations of Deed of Trust covenants.\u201d For this property, with a deed of trust date of June 20, 2014, the original principal amount is listed as $107,000.<\/p>\n

The other two properties were combined on the same notice, both with a deed of trust date of Aug. 5, 2011. The reason for their foreclosures was listed as \u201cViolations of Deed of Trust covenants.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Montezuma County Assessor\u2019s website, the Ocean Pearl property was purchased for $195,000 in September 2010, the South Chestnut Street home for $206,500 in August 2011, and the Lewis farm property for $139,000 in June 2014.<\/p>\n

Keenen Lovett, an attorney with the Cortez firm Kelly R. McCabe, represents the Dolores State Bank, the lien holder in the foreclosures. He has told The Journal<\/em> the case is in litigation, and if defendants Jimmy Dang and Qi Yu Wu are able to prove they have not violated the deeds\u2019 covenants, the restaurant and home will not be put up for public auction. If they prove they have not violated the deed\u2019s covenant and provide the payments they owe on the farm, it also would not be put up for public auction, he said.<\/p>\n

Lovett would not specify what the deed covenant violations were, citing the ongoing litigation, but added that the defendants had requested time extensions on the court foreclosure hearing to gather additional evidence.<\/p>\n

parmijo@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Montezuma County properties tied to August 2018 pot raids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,168,969,135],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-94366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-crime","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-marijuana"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94366"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=94366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}