In early September, former political wunderkind Jaisel Corriea, mayor of Fall River, Mass., was indicted for the second time in the past 12 months, and in mid-October he announced he would not seek re-election. The last time Corriea was indicted, it was because he committed wire fraud and filed false tax returns. This time, he's charged with extorting several applicants for legal marijuana dispensary licenses in the city.
Allegedly, Corriea demanded up to $250,000 in bribes from several prospective marijuana vendors (along with a percentage of the stores' sales) before officially allowing the dispensaries to open. This seems like an unsurprising development for a corrupt local politician like Corriea, but it's actually just business as usual for local governments.
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