A trip to Bocomo Bay

So I went to the head shop.

I wanted a quote from someone who worked there. The owner and operator of Bocomo Bay (Kevin E. Bay and John Hawkins) were indicted by a grand jury on charges of selling drugs and money laundering, along with a host of other things. Combined, the pair was charged with 21 counts.

Nine other defendants and four other businesses were indicted on similar charges.

Friday, during my GA shift, I read the indictments and the civil forfeiture case, which contained a DEA agent’s testimony before the grand jury. I called the US Attorney’s Office and spoke to the person in charge of Public Affairs. He couldn’t tell me more than was in the documents because the grand jury is ongoing and confidential.

I spent most of the evening wading through Bocomo Bay’s financial records.

At 6 p.m., Jeanne asked, “Hannah, we need that story in an hour.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be done reading the investigation in an hour,” I said.

“Okay, have it Saturday. We’ll print it Sunday,” she said.

I was struggling to understand the indictment, what synthetic marijuana actually was (chemically — obviously, it’s fake weed), and how money laundering works. When there was a legal term I didn’t know, I searched the MOBAR glossary. (Thank you, MOBAR, for existing).

At midnight on Friday, the story was still not finished.

You can’t call the US Attorney for an accuracy check at midnight any day of the week.

Finally, around 8 p.m., something clicked. I was no longer scared that I would screw up the story. I knew exactly how I would format it (divided into sections, with bullet points to make it easy to read).

I wanted to write a killer lede. Something like, “Gary Robinson died hungry,” except I didn’t know if any of the defendants were hungry. And none of them were dead.

Bay and Hawkins’ property was seized in a civil forfeiture. When I say property, I mean

• 76 guns (including their Uzi submachine gun)
• Jewelry
• A counterfeit Rolex
• Bars of gold, silver, platinum and palladium (a precious metal, similar to but cheaper than platinum)
• 2,039 silver and gold coins from all over the world

Did your jaw drop? Mine did. Clearly, that was the lede.

And the rest of it came…until about 11 p.m., when I lost the ability to form complete sentences. Seriously, guys, I’d been working on this since 11:30 that morning.

I left the Missourian at midnight. I returned yesterday to finish the story.

Zach Matson was editing. “Are they still selling the Spice?” he said.

I didn’t know. The reviews on headshopfidner.com stop in 2012. That, I think, is when they stopped selling the synthetic stuff.

Caleb, who was on GA, and I went to Bocomo Bay.

The shop is divided into two sections. When you enter, you see racks of leather biker jackets, t-shirts, and shelves of motorcycle helmets. A glass case to the right displays bottles of gypsum. On the back wall, there is a display of motorcycle patches, selling for $1.99 each. They bear slogans like “Keep staring, I may do a trick,” “Don’t tread on me” and “My Boyfriend’s Wife Hates Me!” Most of them are so misogynist that I wouldn’t repeat them privately, let alone write them on my blog.

The whole place smells of incense.

A wall from the back of the shop continues toward the front, leaving the space near the register open, dividing the shop into thirds. Walk around the wall and you find yourself staring at glass display cases of smoking equipment. By equipment, I mean pipes, water pipes, bongs and bowls of varying price and artistry.

They sell hookah tobacco. But I didn’t see the legendary “Bocomo Spice” or “Bocomo Bay,” the two synthetic forms of marijuana the shop was busted for selling.

I tried to talk to the employee but he said he wasn’t allowed to talk about the indictment. He said I could try calling on Monday.

So, here’s what I want to do with this story:

• Track the serial numbers of the guns, which are listed in the indictment. (Margaux said I’m getting “public records happy” but I’m actually working on a gun story, too). I’d like to find out where they got the guns and why they had so many. Were they doomsday preppers? Were they selling? I’d also like to know if the ammo seized in the civil forfeiture was hollow point (ie, cop-killer).
• Work with the graphics department on a story about how Bay laundered the money. I have copies of his federal tax return, bank statements and the company’s bank statements from the past few years. It was all in the indictment. I can’t write a story about it though because I don’t understand the money movement in writing, if that makes sense. I understand it visually and I think that readers will also understand it better visually. Plus, infographics are awesome.

Here’s the first story, which we posted on Friday. It just details the indictment.

Bocomo Bay operators indicted on federal drug charges related to K2 sales [PDF]

Here’s the longer story, which went online last night and is in print today.

Grand jury documents reveal extent of alleged synthetic-weed dealing at Bocomo Bay [PDF]