Luke Scarmazzo #63131-097
USP Lompoc
3901 Klein Road
Lompoc, CA 93436

After the City of Modesto failed to shut down the California Healthcare Collective by banning dispensaries, the DEA was called in.  After a 15-month investigation, the DEA and Modesto Police Department raided CHC and arrested four staff members of the collective.

Beyond his local circle, the first impression of Luke Scarmazzo was that of a talented young rapper who brags about "incorporating dope" and conspicuously flips off the U.S. government in his debut music video. The release of the video came just a month before federal agents stormed into the California Healthcare Collective.

Even though Luke claims that his music and his work at the CHC were separate, government prosecutors explicitly intertwined them by playing the music video during the federal trial. Defense attorneys protested that move, saying it was highly prejudicial for the jury to watch a video where Luke utters obscenities, portrays drug-dealing scenes and raps about threatened violence.

In mid-May of 2008, the jury returned guilty verdicts for the manufacture of over a hundred marijuana plants, and also for various counts of possession with the intent to distribute. But the life-shattering conviction was on another count – running a continuing criminal enterprise – which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years and the possibility of life behind bars. Due to the severity of the penalties, Luke was immediately booked into Fresno County Jail to await his fate. During a hearing in November 2008, Luke was sentenced to 21 years and ten months in federal prison.