DEA files to seize the farm where Schwagstock takes place, formerly Camp Zoe.

Grateful Dead music lovers will no longer be truckin' down to Shannon County for outdoor music festivals if three law enforcement agencies get their way in federal court.
On Monday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a joint complaint in the Eastern District of Missouri asking to seize the 350-acre Zoe Farm, alleging rampant drug dealing and drug use at events.

According to its website, the farm, called Camp Zoe, is located 150 miles southwest of St. Louis near Salem and hosts a popular Grateful Dead festival call Schwagstock every year, as well as biker and pagan rallies and individual concerts. Once a popular summer camp for kids, the property was purchased in 2004 by Jimmy Tebeau, a member of the Schwag, a Grateful Dead tribute band. He opened the grounds to recreational camping and float trips and began hosting the festivals soon after the purchase.

In the complaint, officials said investigators spent four years monitoring and interacting with concertgoers on the farm, witnessing drug use and completing open drug deals with participants during events. Officials allege that the owner and event operators were aware of the activity and "took no immediate action to prevent" the sale and use of cocaine, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, psilocybin mushrooms, opium and marijuana-laced food.
Tebeau has not been charged with a crime. Nor would he have to be for the court to approve the seizure of the property under a civil asset forfeiture law that enables the federal government to take property that is relied upon by criminals as part of an illegal money-making enterprise. The complaint values the farm at $600,000.

The Shannon County Sheriff's Department referred all calls about the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Officials with that office could not be reached.
Tebeau's lawyer, Dan Viets, said the law is unfair and enables the government to bully innocent property owners and take land, money and homes nearly at will.
"One doesn't even need to be accused of a crime, let alone convicted of one to be threatened with the loss of everything you own," Viets said. "That's the threat."
Viets, who is representing his client pro bono, said Tebeau discovered this week that officials had cleaned out his bank account, yet he has not been served legal notice on that forfeiture.
"It's pretty darn hard to hire legal counsel if you don't have any money — and the government knows that," Viets said. "It's just heavy-handed and mean-spirited, and entirely uncalled for."

The farm remains in Tebeau's ownership pending the outcome of the case.

- http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_f8a1fdec-7e8d-5834-b89f-53db236d9730.html

Kinda fucked up..

 

Damn That messed up

 

I know about 30/40 Stadiums where the same thing occurred..
but I dont expect to much from the "show me state" my friend lives there. He actually sold me my country home for a song and a dance, so he could go to Missouri and become a meth addict..

 

this kind of shit is why i am trying to leave Missouri


Viets was also my lawyer

 

Terrible news.

My best friend hosts a festival there and is very depressed over this... Changing venues is not easy, especially since he switched to Zoe from the Shawnee Cave Ampitheater just two years ago.

=X

 

search save camp zoe on facebook. join, please help save our home

 

The most messed up thing is the US drug laws allow them to seize your assets before you have even been convicted of a crime.

Guilty until found guilty

 

I was about to post the same thing.