Owner faces federal drug charges
By Vicky Wedig
Editor
The Smoke Shop in Delavan closed last month, and its former owner is expected to be charged with federal drug offenses.
David S. Yarmo, 47, of Delavan, was charged in April in Walworth County Circuit Court with four felony and two misdemeanor drug offenses after seven years of police scrutiny that involved state and federal investigations into the sale of substances that people smoked to get high.
The state’s case against Yarmo in Walworth County was dismissed July 12 on the prosecutor’s motion, and a criminal case is expected to be filed against him in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Milwaukee.
Walworth County District Attorney Daniel Necci said the state considered first prosecuting the matter in circuit court and then proceeding with a federal case but instead made a determination to turn the matter over to the U.S. Court.
“It involved a discussion between my office and the office of the United States attorney,” Necci said.
Necci said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chmelar is handling the case. Chmelar said Monday no charges have been filed against Yarmo at this point, and he could not confirm nor deny whether charges are forthcoming.
Necci said a case doesn’t have to cross state lines to be handled in federal court. He said if an offense is a violation of state and federal statutes, either one can prosecute the matter.
“The federal government clearly doesn’t take anything that it possibly can,” he said.
Necci said the federal government – the Drug Enforcement Agency, had a large hand in the investigation of Yarmo and the Smoke Shop and “felt they could best accomplish the goals of justice in the federal court.”
He said the state does not have the same matrices with regard to opiates as the federal courts do.
In the circuit court case, for example, Yarmo was charged with, among other offenses, three counts of distributing a “hazardous substance.” The substance was “ab fubinaca” – a federally controlled substance. Ab fubunaca is an ingredient in synthetic marijuana that was designated as a Schedule I controlled substance in January.
The ingredient was contained in “MJ Wild Cherry” and “High Ace Blueberry” that confidential informants purchased at the Smoke Shop as part of a Walworth County Drug Unit investigation on Feb. 21 and March 13, according to the criminal complaint in the now-dismissed circuit court case. About 300 one-gram packs of the synthetic marijuana were seized during an April 4 search of the Smoke Shop, according to the complaint.
Those charges are Class I felony offenses, each of which carries a maximum sentence of $10,000 in fines and 3 1/2 years in prison.
In the circuit court case, Yarmo also was charged with delivering a Schedule I or II narcotic – a Class E felony offense that carries maximum penalties of 15 years in prison and $50,000 in fines. That charge stemmed from a Sept. 29, 2009, incident in which Yarmo allegedly sold Mimosa Root Bark that contained dimethyltryptmine – a state controlled substance known as DMT. DMT is a hallucinogen found in plants and seeds that can also be produced synthetically.
A related civil case was filed July 21 in federal court whereby prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of two of Yarmo’s bank accounts and a Town of Lyons property. The civil complaint alleges that those funds – a $405,000 account and a $371,000 account – were generated from the sale of illegal substances and the property was purchased with funds from those illegal sales.
The Smoke Shop closed Sept. 1, and the Avant Bicycle Shop planned to open in the space at 114 E. Walworth St. last week Wednesday.
Yarmo reportedly opened a new store across the state line in Illinois in the Big Foot or Harvard, Ill., area.
