it was in early 2018 when two brothers from a small town in Wisconsin had dreams of making millions the younger one a kid named Tyler huffhines had been a hustler his whole life always listening in on his mother's business meetings flipping sneakers and used cars and investing in the stock market the day he turned 18 but his whole life changed when his older brother Jacob introduced him to the world of THC carts now Tyler was never the type of guy to get high but when he realized how lucrative a business counterfeit carts were he couldn't resist taking advantage Tyler's entrepreneurial Spirit paired with Jacob's extensive knowledge of the THC cart market led him and his brother to create the largest illegal counterfeit Vape operation in the US selling an estimated 2.9 Million cards and making millions of dollars in just a year and a half however thanks to some strict parents and their kid the hu hine's Brothers operation Came Crashing Down just as fast as they grew it two brothers fac char in a large scale counterfeit vaping operation authorities say their mother was in on it They seized THC products with a street value of $1.5 million tucked in the Westosha region of southeastern Wisconsin is the quiet Village of Paddock Lake surrounded by vast farmlands quiet Country Roads and dotted with clusters of trees it's a peaceful place that's far removed from the bustle of big cities The Village home to about 3200 is built around around its namesake Lake a hub for summer boating and winter ice fishing it's the kind of town where everyone knows everyone especially when it comes to their local high school wosia Central High School acts as the central hub for students across the area the school standing on the outskirts of Paddock Lake is a modern building that almost feels out of place next to The Village's small homes in rustic charm but it's here where the Youth of the wosia region gather to learn play sports and in the case of Tyler huffhines make some questionable decision decisions Tyler grew up with his older brother Mother and grandfather in a quiet neighborhood overlooking Paddock Lake from an early age Tyler was drawn to business often sitting quietly behind Furniture listening to his mom's business meetings and pleading to open his own bank account by seventh grade he was already on his grind flipping sneakers to make a profit and when he entered wosia Central as a freshman his entrepreneurial skills only got sharper while other students were caught up in sports and mowing down kids on Nuke Town Tyler was learning the ropes of business taking a as many business and Leadership classes as possible while always looking for his next money-making gig as his high school years went on he made thousands of dollars flipping used cars while also investing heavily in the stock market the day he turned 18 after Tyler graduated high school in 2018 he attended Carthage College and worked alongside his brother at his mother's real estate office now he was still on his grind of becoming a young millionaire but he was becoming Restless he wasn't content with being stuck working a typical job he wanted more he wanted something lucrative something thrilling something that would fit the CEO type of Lifestyle he always yearned for but thankfully for him his older brother Jacob had just the right thing for him Jacob huffhines lived a vastly different life than his ambitious sibling born three years apart Jacob spent the majority of his teenage years getting into some pretty serious shit by the age of 17 he faced charges for marijuana possession and underage drinking by 22 he was a convicted felon and earned himself some jail time on charges of dealing cocaine and running a drug house but despite these obvious signs that he should step away from the world he veered himself into Jacob always found a way back into the drug trade he never learned from his mistakes and instead Dove head first into learning all about the world of dealing and his eagerness to continue selling drugs aligned perfectly with the rise of THC cards mind you this was early 2018 a time when these products were starting to catch fire and become super popular legal gray areas and a growing demand for discreet High potency cannabis products were creating a gold mine for those willing to take the risk of dishing them out and Jacob who was already deep into this world saw the potential to make a shitload of money from selling these cards and was willing to take that risk but not alone Tyler's ambition to make massive amounts of dough paired with Jacob's vast knowledge of dealing was a match made in heaven a match that Tyler simply couldn't resist when Jacob laid out his idea to Tyler he was completely on board and just like that the boys started to craft up a plan their strategy was simple they wanted to create an operation that cut cost and maximize profits by selling counterfeit Vape cartridges in other words they wanted to establish what's known as a pen Factory a lowprofile operation that essentially served as a middleman between THC liquid suppliers and high schoolers who wanted to get fried their plan revolved around sourcing empty Vape cartridges and branded packaging from Chinese manufacturers for dirt cheap and then filling them with THC liquid that the boys obtained from California BAS basically they wanted to pass off their carts as legit for as cheap as possible is that scummy absolutely but it was profitable and they made it even more profitable by opting to cut their THC liquid with cheaper oils that contained vitamin E acetate sound familiar this approach used less of their expensive core ingredient while still making their product look legit which in turn increased their margins with minimal overhead however even though they had a solid plan set up the duo still had no clue where they would set up shop I mean Tyler probably had enough money saved up to buy a place but they wanted to keep cost down as low as possible so where would they go well it turned out the answer was close to home Courtney huffhines wasn't your typical mom she was a well-known real estate agent in the Westosha area with a larger than life personality that perfectly matched her career if you lived anywhere around Paddock Lake chances are you saw her bright red Blazers on real estate ads or her smiling face on Instagram promoting her new listings or showing off her family's latest vacation but beyond the post and business attire Courtney was someone who valued ambition and wasn't afraid to take risks she had spent over two decades in the real estate game she built her career by working with well-known real estate companies in southeastern Wisconsin and eventually opened her own place called Reality Executives unity and despite filing for bankruptcy back in 2012 she was back on her feet by 2018 and opened a brand new real estate office in Union Grove Wisconsin about 15 minutes from Paddock Lake she was all about success resilience and self-belief but it turns out her success wasn't just limited to selling homes if you know what I mean the boys approached their mother with their plan pitching it as some kind of entrepreneurial Endeavor that required a home base and shockingly instead of slaming the door on their wildly illegal idea Courtney did the exact opposite she gave it her blessing and even allowed them to use her office in Union Grove to get things started it's almost sural to imagine like on one side is Courtney's nice real estate office and on the other side her own sons are filling carts with booth on January 16th 2018 Tyler Jacob and Courtney kicked off their new startup with nothing more than some empty Vape carts a bit of THC distillate and a lot of ambition Tyler the number one man in the operation knew that scaling this type of business required well learning the business and this is where a man named moo came into play moo who was not a cow but rather the boy plug from California wasn't just their supplier of THC distillate he became Tyler's Mentor over countless FaceTime calls MO walk Tyler through every step of making counterfeit cards like how to dip the caps and alcohol to avoid leaks and how to properly fill them Tyler picked up this skill rather quickly and began making his dank Vapes and chronic Sour Patch Kids cards all by himself in a matter of days after he got in the swing of things it wasn't long before he decided he needed to invest in more supplies over Labor Day weekend in 2018 he flew to California carrying $300,000 in cash to purchase more distill it a fucking insane move for a kid straight out of high school the trip secured the steady supply of THC oil the brothers needed to ramp up production which led them to the tall task of building their team they started out by hiring a few Associates to help fill the carts paying them $20 an hour to do so well above the Wisconsin minimum wage at the time and for a while their system of filling and selling carts out of Courtney's office was running smoothly until one of their Associates got stopped by the cops now although this little situation didn't blow up their operation just yet it was enough to make Tyler and Jacob hit paw and think about a new location to start filling their carts something way more conspicuous they set their sights on a condo in Bristol Bay a peaceful neighborhood in the Village of Bristol Tyler already having trust from sketchy randos in the state turned to California to find a guy and pay them to steal a man's identity which he then used to rent out the condo once again a fucking insane move for a kid who couldn't legally drank but this wasn't even the craziest part Courtney was the one who brokered the deal for the condo and was well aware Ware that her own son was not only using a stolen identity to rent it but also knew that they were about to run a full-fledged drug ring out of it Courtney honey what are we doing and somehow no one suspected a thing from the condo deal and it soon became the center of their ever expanding Empire over the next year and a half their operation absolutely exploded they went from a few helpers here and there to a full team of 10 workers who were feeling between 3 and 5,000 cartridges a day which equates to over 2.9 Million carts over that time frame also during that time frame Mr Krabs I mean Tyler tightened up the operation's workflow even more to increase productivity and reduce costs he did so by switching his workers from being on hourly pay to paying 30 cents per cart they filled an equation he calculated would create more carts and cost less for him he realized it would be more cost effective according to Tyler if he started paying him 30 cents a cartridge he would save or he would make an additional $2.20 a cartridge from when they started in early 2018 to around August 2019 the huffhines were killing it thousands upon thousands of carts were being manufactured and sold from the condo some of which were even making it to neighboring states like Illinois and Minnesota this officially made them a multi-state operation with absolutely no suspicion from anyone now their neighbors would see Jacob Tyler and the Gang constantly leave and come back from the condo but they didn't think anything of it they thought it was all normal well everything seemed normal until a couple of parents about an hour away from the operation CAU their kid doing something naughty a mom and a dad were shocked to see their kid getting stoned off a cart in early July 2019 in wakaa an affluent suburb near Milwaukee the parents wanting to hold their high schooler accountable marched him down to the local police station to turn himself in which I mean is a little extreme right but regardless the parents made their kid talk with the wakaa police department and discuss where he got the cart from which is when he showed them Tyler's Snapchat now Tyler would constantly post about the thousands of cards had in stock his piles of money along with his constant trips to California to reup his supplies all of which was a gold mine of information for these cops Tyler set up an account on Snapchat and sold product using the name wisco Bag Boy after seeing this the Walky shop Police Department launched an investigation meticulously tracing dealers and anyone else that could be a part of the operation the evidence stacked up quickly and within a month the walaa cops teamed up with the Kenosha drug operations group and the rine County Metro drug unit to finally take down the Huffines operation on September 5th 2019 around 6:00 a.m. authorities executed search warrants at the three locations connected to the huffhines their childhood home in Paddock Lake their condo in bristle and Courtney's office in Union growth the first raid took place at the family's home inside Tyler's room officers found around $48,000 in cash in a fully loaded shotgun with One in the Chamber inside Jacob's room they found a loaded rifle cocaine weed a digital scale some carts nine XX pills and around 11,000 in cash and around the house detectives discovered eight other firearms and a sort of drug paraphernalia up next was the Holy Grail the condo in bristle at the condo officers found 31,200 THC vape cartridges ready for shipment 98,000 unfilled carts and 57 mason jars filled with THC distillate worth around $342,000 there were also three money counting machines 18 lbs of weed and stacks of empty packages for Brands like dank Vapes and chronic Sour Patch Kids this is also where Jacob and Tyler were found and arrested the kosha county sheriff's department executed warrants last week on two County Properties two men have since been arrested two brothers lastly authorities searched Courtney's real estate office in Union Grove at the time the place had been mostly cleared out but police still found leftover packaging materials and drug paraphernalia enough to show that the office was a critical part of the operation at one point and as a result Courtney was arrested a few weeks later all the THC oils and stuff were gone at that time but all the packaging everything that was there in the in the Bristol uh condo was also there in the back of her office so now with all three huffin and handcuffs it was obvious they're going to be slammed with the book right I mean an illegal multi-million dollar operation identity fraud a shit ton of firearms selling millions of carts across state lines they were fucked or were they Tyler Jacob and Courtney were all charged with some pretty serious serious crimes as you can see on the screen I mean it's literally enough to fill the entire screen and after looking at all those charges it seems like some pretty serious shit but whatever god- tier lawyers they hired got them out of all of it Jacob was only fed $10,000 and placed on 2 years probation Courtney was fined a total of $115,000 and Tyler who was the one who spearheaded this entire thing was not find at all and only placed on 3 years probation I I just don't know how to explain that all three of the people connected to the largest Black Market THC vape ring in the US all avoided prison time and pretty much got away with everything