Duo associated with Prince of Pot plead GUILTY!

This morning the Seattle Times reports and Marc Emery’s own Cannabis Culture Magazine report,

A pair from Vancouver, B.C., pleaded guilty in Seattle’s federal court today in a marijuana-manufacturing operation.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said Michelle Rainey, 38, and Gregory Keith Williams, 54, voluntarily appeared in Seattle to resolve charges stemming from a 2005 grand-jury indictment. The attorney’s office said the two were employees of marijuana-seed distributor Marc Emery, who remains in Canada while fighting extradition to the U.S. on similar charges.

Terms of plea agreements for Rainey and Williams include recommended sentences of two years probation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 17.

The BC3: Greg Williams, Marc Emery, and Michelle Rainey

According to court documents, Rainey worked for Emery, who billed himself as the “prince of pot,” from 1998 to 2005, assisting with Emery’s mail-order marijuana-seed business, which had many U.S. customers

Court documents said Williams handled phone orders and also sold seeds directly to customers. Authorities said Williams had sold seeds to a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent.

Authorities said Emery’s seed operation took in more than $3 million annually.

Emery is scheduled for an extradition hearing in Canada on June 1.

This is a surprise turn-about of events because Marc Emery had made previous statements to the effect the BC3 would not come to the United States to stand trial.

In an interview with National,

Jody Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine and wife of Mr. Emery, said her husband is “very happy that Greg and Michelle will not be punished with a 10-20 year jail sentence.”

“The United States wants Marc,” she said, “and he has never wanted it on his conscience that Greg and Michelle were taken in, too. So he feels relieved.”

The extradition trial of the so-called cannabis crusader begins in B.C. Supreme Court on June 1. “Now he gets to defend himself, and that’s the way he wants it,” Ms. Emery said.

“If he’s punished, it should be here in Canada. That’s where all his activities have been carried out. He has never operated in the United States.”

The three were arrested after undercover agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration in the U.S. alleged in affidavits that they had been sold marijuana seeds directly at Mr. Emery’s cannabis operation on Vancouver’s West Hastings Street. Since the arrests, the business has closed.