Justin Magnuson, a successful Dallas entrepreneur, sold his health care company for almost $100 million while still in his 30s and began investing in new business ventures.
He expanded his new spa company, became a partner in local bars and bought dozens of acres of rural Northern California land, court records show. But what really brought in the profits, federal authorities say, were the California fields that produced marijuana for sale across the U.S.
Magnuson, 39, a Southern Methodist University graduate, has multiple college degrees, was partly raised by a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and was once named one of Dallas’ most eligible men.
Now he sits behind bars awaiting trial in North Texas, accused of being a leader in a large marijuana trafficking conspiracy.
Authorities say Magnuson and other defendants transported marijuana inside soda vending machines in semi-trailers and then used his private jet to fly the cash proceeds back to the West Coast. Magnuson, who had been attending UCLA, laundered drug profits through his various Dallas businesses, including It’s a Secret Med Spa and a bar named Vice Park, prosecutors say.
Magnuson gave his co-defendants shares in his spa chain in exchange for drug-related cash, said Ryan Slicker, an Irving police investigator assigned to a DEA task force, during a hearing.
A lawyer for It’s a Secret Med Spa said…