MADISON — The owner of a Madison medical cannabis shop that was recently ordered to shut down due to his lack of license is now also facing criminal charges, according to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.
Daniel P. Safranec, 40, of Madison, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one Class A count of aggravated trafficking in scheduled drugs and one Class B count of aggravated cultivation of marijuana, Sheriff Dale Lancaster said in a statement issued Thursday.
Safranec posted $10,000 cash bail Thursday and was released from the Somerset County Jail, with conditions that he not use or possess marijuana or marijuana products and not to distribute marijuana or marijuana products, according to Lancaster. He is due to appear in court in Skowhegan Nov. 5.
Safranec was arrested following the execution of two drug search warrants Wednesday afternoon, Lancaster said.
One was executed at Safranec’s shop, Simple Twist Cannabis Co. at 97 Lakewood Road, and the other was simultaneously executed at Safranec’s residence on the East Madison Road. A Morning Sentinel reporter witnessed a team of investigators arrive to Simple Twist Cannabis on Wednesday just after interviewing Safranec.
Investigators seized more than 2,120 pounds of processed marijuana, 159 flowering marijuana plants, a large amount of marijuana-laced products, more than $1,800 in cash and records, Lancaster said. The charges were aggravated due to the amount of drugs seized and a prior federal felony-level drug conviction on Safranec’s record.
Lancaster said his office obtained the search warrants after an investigation found Safranec was allegedly selling and growing marijuana illegally.
Last week, town officials were successful in a civil land use citation and complaint they filed against Safranec and Simple Twist Cannabis in Skowhegan District Court.
Safranec was found to lack a caregiver registry identification card from the Office of Cannabis Policy. And because he does not have a state license, the town has not issued him a license to operate the retail cannabis shop, as required by an ordinance voters enacted last year.
Following a hearing in that case July 24, Judge Erika Bristol issued an order that Simple Twist Cannabis and Safranec cease all distribution, sale and transfer of cannabis products until he obtains proper licenses from the state Office of Cannabis Policy and the town of Madison, court records show.
Bristol also ordered Safranec and his company to pay the town’s legal fees of $2,932.09 and civil penalties totaling $29,100. The order had a provision that the civil penalties would be reduced to a total of $9,700 if Safranec complied with the cease and desist order within 48 hours, which he did not.
Moments before detectives arrived to the shop around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Safranec said he had not yet seen Bristol’s order, which is dated July 24.
The Sheriff’s Office’s investigation was completely separate from the town’s enforcement action, and it was “coincidental” that the search warrants were executed within days of Bristol’s order, Lancaster said in response to questions.
Elisa Ellis, director of licensing at the Office of Cannabis Policy, testified in court in the the civil case that Safranec held a caregiver registry identification card that expired July 9, 2024. Safranec had held the card for several years prior to that.
Safranec submitted an application for renewal the day before it was set to expire, Ellis said. But the renewal application was never completed, and Safranec continued to operate without a license for several months before he applied again, she said.
In March, a sheriff’s deputy acting as a “secret shopper” was able to buy cannabis without a medical card and reported that to the Office of Cannabis Policy, Ellis said. Two days later, without knowing that happened, an inspector who was in the area conducted an inspection, initially not knowing Safranec lacked a caregiver registry identification card, and issued several violations.
The town, informed by state regulators of Safranec’s lack of caregiver registry identification card, then issued a notice of violation, which ultimately led to it taking Safranec to court as he did not shut down or get a license.
Safranec has said in interviews and during the court proceeding that he did not understand why the Office of Cannabis Policy denied his application, after several years of seemingly having no issue.
He also pointed to changes in paperwork required that apparently asked for information he either could not or did not want to provide.
Safranec said previously that he would not shut down his shop unless he was arrested, but, even then, that he would open it again. The shop, on busy U.S. Route 201 just over the Skowhegan town line, appeared to be closed Thursday afternoon.
In 2015, Safranec was sentenced to 12 months in prison for a federal marijuana manufacturing conviction in the Western District of New York.
“I am astonished that the State of Maine would license an individual to sell marijuana with a federal felony conviction for marijuana cultivation,” Lancaster said in a statement.
