Jeffrey Fillers, whose Eureka-based company, The Daily Hybrid LLC, received a state transportation license for medical marijuana, has been sentenced to 40 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana and conspiracy to launder money, U.S. District Court records show.
Fillers, who also owns a portion of the Melvin Brewing Co. in Eureka, and his brother-in-law, Bryan Jones, pleaded guilty to the charges in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming, and they were sentenced on June 22 by Judge Scott W. Skavdahl, court documents show.
Along with the 40-month sentence, Fillers was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay $2,000 in community restitution. Skavdahl recommended Fillers be imprisoned in Marion, Ill., near his family, and be placed in a drug-abuse program, court records indicate.
The judge also directed Fillers to “divest his ownership interest in The Daily Hybrid LLC and all associated businesses.” The Daily Hybrid was to be located at 337 W. Main Street in Eureka.
Missouri law generally bars convicted felons from owning or working for a marijuana company. That excludes people convicted of using marijuana, people convicted of non-violent crimes more than five years ago who were not incarcerated and convicts released from incarceration more than five years ago who have not since been convicted of another crime.
Fillers owns a 6.97 percent share of the Melvin Brewing Co., which opened a location in Eureka in June 2019, court papers said.
Melvin Brewing did not respond to questions about Fillers’ status with the business.
Jones was sentenced to five years, fined $30,000 and ordered to pay $2,000 in community restitution. The court recommended Jones be incarcerated in Sheridan, Ore., near his family and placed in a residential drug-abuse program, “as participation is absolutely crucial to his successful rehabilitation given his history of substance abuse and addiction,” according to court files.
Fillers and Jones initially pleaded not guilty and were scheduled for a jury trial, which was postponed in March 2020 due to the complexity of the cases and pandemic-related safety precautions. However, on Feb. 26, the two men changed their pleas to guilty, court papers said.
Gavin James Watt and Todd Dennis Harris also were indicted in the case. Watt was sentenced in April to one month in prison for conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana, and Harris was sentenced in May to 24 months for conspiracy to distribute and manufacture marijuana, court records show.
The sentencings were the culmination of a case that began in October 2016 and ended with indictments in January 2020. The investigation spanned Oregon, Wyoming and Missouri, according to court documents.
The Drug Enforcement Agency initiated an investigation of Jones, who lives near Jackson, Wyo., on Oct. 31, 2016, for trafficking large quantities of marijuana, and Fillers was found to have played a central role in the laundering scheme through his business, Jeffrey Fillers Homes LLC, which owned lots in Tennessee, according to an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint written by Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Justin Vanderbilt.
Authorities seized more than $700,000 and about 400 pounds of marijuana, and they watched Fillers’ home and searched his phone, emails and bank records, according to the affidavit.
Vanderbilt accused Jones of purchasing marijuana from growers in Oregon or growing his own at sites in Oregon and California. Jones then would ship the marijuana to New York state, and the cash proceeds would be driven or flown back, the affidavit said.
Vanderbilt said agents were told in August 2018 that Fillers laundered drug money through Jeffrey Fillers Homes, and at times, Fillers owned properties Jones used to grow marijuana.
In August 2014, investigators discovered property in Williams, Ore., was used by Fillers to obtain a $303,000 loan from First Community National Bank, and $300,000 was wired to the Teton Law Group LCC in Jackson, Wyo., from Fillers Homes’ First Community bank account, Vanderbilt said.
Fillers reportedly used that $300,000 to invest in Melvin Brewing, Vanderbilt said.
In March 2019, investigators analyzed text messages and emails from Jones to an unidentified person, which indicated a money-laundering scheme for the drug trafficking organization’s marijuana proceeds that Fillers used to set up property deals in Tennessee, according to the affidavit.
In November 2019, Fillers received two wire transfers from Deschutes County Title Co. totaling $438,984.87 from the sale of property in Bend, Ore., which reportedly had been used to grow marijuana, the affidavit said.
In August 2019, Fillers received a cashier’s check for $56,000 from one of his First Community accounts to Daily Hybrid, which then bought property in the 300 block of West Main Street in Eureka for $1 million, Vanderbilt wrote.