The man who police said owned several Zarati shops in Southwest Virginia, including one of the largest and most popular cannabis-related stores in Abingdon, has been indicted on felony drug and gun charges.

Aaron Ramon Miller of Abingdon was directly indicted April 21 on charges of distribution and possession with intent to distribute up to 5 pounds of marijuana, conducting an unlawful financial transaction, and nonviolent felony possession of a gun, according to online Washington County Circuit Court documents.

A direct indictment occurs when charges are brought without a preliminary hearing before a judge.

Miller is listed as a fugitive in the online records.

The court documents only include the charges and offer no details about what led to the charges. Neither Commonwealth’s Attorney Josh Cumbow nor Sheriff Blake Andis could be reached for comment.

The offense date is listed as Sept. 27, 2023, which was the day before local law enforcement agencies and the Virginia State Police conducted a sweeping raid of cannabis-related stores across Southwest Virginia, including Zarati shops. Nine counties between Scott and Roanoke counties were targeted.

The charges against Miller are the first known to be filed against a cannabis store owner in Southwest Virginia, possibly in connection to the searches. According to the unsealed search warrant affidavits, filed the same day as the offense date on the charges against Miller, he opened the Abingdon Zarati shop at its original location on Village Boulevard in November 2021, and then moved it to its current location off Lee Highway south of Abingdon.

In another affidavit, police say that Miller owned multiple Zarati shops and sold franchises to some of them.

Attempts to contact Miller were unsuccessful. No attorney name is included in court documents, and calls to the Abingdon Zarati shop weren’t answered. The store’s once-active Facebook page appears to be inactive or has been taken down.

Few details about the simultaneous searches were released until months later, when court records were unsealed. The raids came after police had conducted undercover purchases of material that tested positive as marijuana.

Search warrant affidavits from several counties revealed that police seized green plant material, dried plant material, cash, ATM machines, computers, cellphones, guns, ammunition and vehicles, including two Rolls-Royces.

Cannabis stores have popped up across Southwest Virginia in the last few years due to gray areas and confusion over the state’s marijuana laws. In 2021, when Democrat Ralph Northam was governor, the state approved possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal use, but no retail market was created.

Since Republican Glenn Youngkin was elected, efforts to establish a retail market have failed. Many believe that will happen if a Democratic governor is elected in November.

Meanwhile, the owners and operators of the stores have tried to skirt the law with buying, gifting and membership schemes. Most recently, there has been more outright selling of the products, which also include gummies, cookies and other items. All are unregulated, untaxed and untested.

In April 2023, state Attorney General Jason Miyares issued an opinion that the gifting of marijuana contingent upon the purchase of another item is illegal. That opinion also says that neither an establishment’s status as a private club nor the source of its marijuana is material to whether it or the customers are distributing marijuana unlawfully.

Last year, Miyares warned the owners of several Southwest Virginia stores that selling products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, without proper packaging violates the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, which his office enforces.

The attorney general does not have general criminal enforcement power over violations of the state’s marijuana laws. In February, Miyares told Cardinal News that he thinks law enforcement should crack down on the stores selling marijuana products. 

Nearly two years after the raids, there has been no such crackdown. Although a few stores closed in the immediate aftermath of the searches, a number have since opened, including three new ones now operating off Lee Highway between Bristol and Abingdon.

Bristol still has a host of the stores, while many small towns in far Southwest Virginia have at least one cannabis store.

The only other known charges filed in connection to the searches occurred in Scott County, where 13 people were hit with drug-related charges by local authorities.

The Virginia State Police was the lead agency in the raids. A spokesperson for the VSP referred questions about Miller’s charges to Cumbow but said the investigation remains active. A question about the status of the seized items wasn’t answered.