Los Angeles attorney Nathan Hoffman, 56, is going down for his role in a sprawling marijuana trafficking empire that turned legal fronts into greenhouses of crime. Hoffman pleaded guilty today in federal court in Sacramento to manufacturing marijuana as part of a conspiracy to distribute the drug across California, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert confirmed.
Hoffman, once a licensed practitioner with offices on Wilshire Boulevard, admitted he created shell legal entities to mask the operation’s true purpose: profit from the illegal cultivation and sale of massive quantities of marijuana. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to surrender his law license and won’t fight disbarment by the State Bar of California — a fall from grace for a man once sworn to uphold the law.
The conspiracy centered on two industrial-sized grow sites in Sutter County and Sacramento, allegedly developed with co-conspirators Yan Ebyam and Hung Nguyen. Federal raids on June 21, 2011, uncovered over 5,000 plants at two locations — 2,168 at Jopson Ranch in Rio Oso and 3,305 at Cal-Nevada Wholesale Florist in Sacramento. Agents hit seven sites across three counties, exposing a network built to exploit California’s medical marijuana laws.
Hung Nguyen, who operated the Canna Clinic of Garden Grove and the South Bay Canna Clinic in Torrance, already pleaded guilty last week. He was a key distributor, funneling Northern California-grown product through Southern California storefronts. Yan Ebyam and Aimee Sisco were arrested at the grow sites and admitted their roles in the operation.
This case is one of three interwoven prosecutions — United States v. Yan Ebyam et al. (2:11-cr-275-JAM and 2:11-cr-276-JAM) — targeting large-scale pot conspiracies in the Eastern District of California. All 12 defendants have now pleaded guilty. Most have been sentenced to prison, marking a sweeping takedown by federal and state authorities.
Hoffman’s sentencing is scheduled for April 18, 2017, before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The investigation was led by the DEA, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Sutter County Sheriff’s Department, and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason Hitt and Todd A. Pickles prosecuted the case.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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