The discovery of the fake Amazon van began with anonymous tips.
The van had been used for months to pick up black-market marijuana from grows across Oklahoma, an investigation later found. The pot would be shipped east in semitrailers, ending up mostly in New York.
The tips had been about a stash house in Oklahoma City. They were made to Oklahoma City Crime Stoppers, twice, in January 2022.
That started the investigation, and it led to the identification of other stash houses, court records show. Those locations were put under surveillance.
In December 2022, investigators on a stakeout at one location took note when what looked to be an Amazon van arrived. It would later prove to be a fake.
"We observed a fake Amazon truck back up to the garage of that stash house," FBI task force officer Chad Vontungeln recalled at a federal trial in January. "The driver got out. The garage door of the stash house opened. They opened the back doors of the fake Amazon truck. Individuals came out of the house, grabbed several full, black trash bags out of the back of the Amazon truck and took them into the garage."
The officer later put a tracker on the van. The driver, Brandon Ye, would be arrested at his Oklahoma City warehouse on March 31, 2023, where a semitruck was waiting to be loaded with 2,700 pounds of marijuana.
Ye was wearing an Amazon jacket.
On Thursday, Ye was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for his role in the black-market distribution ring.
He said at his sentencing in Oklahoma City federal court that he had been selfish and was sorry and ashamed. "I understand that I must accept the consequences from my actions," he said.
Ye, 43, pleaded guilty in September to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a gun in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
U.S. District Judge Scott Palk chose the punishment, giving him credit for cooperating with prosecutors. The judge agreed Ye had been brazen in his operation.
The fake Amazon van and a 2022 quadruple homicide at a grow near west of Hennessey became symbols for a time of how the legalization of medical marijuana transformed Oklahoma into the "Wild West of Weed."
How big is black-market marijuana in Oklahoma?
In a sentencing memo, a federal prosecutor told the judge that the street value of the black-market marijuana being generated each year in Oklahoma is in excess of $30 billion.
Ye alone may have shipped more than 28 tons of marijuana in less than a year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wilson McGarry told the judge in the memo.
The estimated street value of that much marijuana is $140 million, according to his memo.
Ye was owner of Arch Granite & Cabinetry, a kitchen countertop business in Oklahoma City. He would ship marijuana from the company warehouse on Fridays beginning in June of 2022.
He at first used an Arch Granite van to pick up marijuana but then turned to the fake Amazon van, prosecutors said. He picked up marijuana from Oklahoma grows in Oakland, Wetumka, Rush Springs, Oilton, Fort Gibson, Watonga, Elk City, Hydro, Foster, Alex, Barnsdall, Okemah, Cashion, Sayre, Henryetta and Paden.
The investigation identified Ye's suppliers from the tracker that had been put on the fake Amazon van. Raids resulted in other criminal cases. The owner of the Oakland grow was sentenced Thursday to six years in federal prison.
Ye in January testified for the prosecution at the trial for the manager of the Wetumka grow and a management intern there. He said he began using the fake van in March of 2022 and hired people to put the Amazon logo on it.
"Why did you disguise this van to look like an Amazon delivery van?" the prosecutor asked.
"Because my boss told me a vehicle like this would be safer," he replied through a translator.
He made trips to grows four or five times a week, according to his testimony. He was paid an average of $15 a pound for the pickups. He identified his boss only as "Hui."
He confirmed he picked up pot from as many as 20 grows. "They're all operated by Chinese nationals," he said.
Ye lost his house in Oklahoma City, as well as his gun, the fake van and three other vehicles because of his guilty plea. He also forfeited $98,901 to the government.
His business has permanently closed.
He came from a poor village in China to the United States 24 years ago and had been a legitimate businessman, defense attorney Paul Faulk told the judge Thursday.
In a sentencing memo, the defense attorney told the judge Ye has lost everything.
"Mr. Ye committed these acts based on a reckless and regrettable impulse after an invitation to make some extra money. He was essentially a glorified delivery boy for higher ups in the drug organization and was being compensated a modest amount for money for his role in the operation," Faulk wrote.
In a legal filing, prosecutors characterized his cooperation as substantial but also complained he had been evasive and likely untruthful at times. They stopped using him as a witness because of his credibility issues.
'Copy cats' have emerged
Prosecutors also complained "copy cats" have emerged because of his illegal operation.
A traffic stop of a fake Amazon van in Missouri in January led to a raid of a marijuana grow in Lindsay, Oklahoma, in April.
The van was stopped because of traffic violations, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control reported in a news release in April.
A search of the van uncovered 246 pounds of packaged marijuana which had recently been picked up at the location in Lindsay, the bureau's spokesman, Mark Woodward, said.
An investigation discovered Bright Stones LLC had obtained its license by fraud, using a "straw ownership" scheme, he said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: He picked up pot in a fake Amazon van. Now he's going to prison
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