New York CBD retailer suing FedEx, city of New York for seizing hemp shipment

A CBD retailer based in Brooklyn, New York, is suing FedEx and the city of New York for reporting and confiscating a hemp shipment in 2019.

Green Angel CBD owner Oren Levy and his brother Ronen Levy filed the lawsuit in a New York federal district court last month, accusing the city of New York along with two New York City police officers, and FedEx and one of its drivers, of not returning a hemp shipment.

The 106-pound shipment of hemp products the retailer had ordered from Vermont-based Fox Holler Farms in 2019 was valued at $17,000, but worth up to $100,000 in retail profits, according to the Levys.

Land Line, a publication covering the trucking industry, first reported the lawsuit.

Oren Levy had redirected the delivery to Ronen Levy’s residence to receive, but the shipment had been seized by a Vermont police department after a FedEx driver notified law enforcement of packages of illegal substances in its care.

After inspecting paperwork, the Vermont police cleared the shipment, only to have FedEx then notify the city of New York about its concerns over the hemp delivery, the lawsuit stated.

In a November 2019 statement from FedEx, the company said its network prohibits such shipments.

Law enforcement officers with the NYPD arrested Ronen Levy and held him for marijuana possession and confiscated the nine packages in the delivery containing legal hemp products, but the police refused to release the shipment, according to the lawsuit.

All charges were dropped against Ronen Levy, and Oren Levy reported in late December 2019 that his brother picked up the 106 pounds of hemp from the NYPD.

“They actually sealed it normally. I was surprised,” Levy said.

Levy told the New York Post that the shipment from Fox Holler Farms in Vermont contained hemp with 0.14% THC, well below the 0.3% federal limit.