Randall Zandstra: Attempted Murder, Mail Fraud, and Marijuana Ring

Randall “Randy” Zandstra is a career criminal whose convictions span more than two decades and multiple states, including attempted murder in Texas, federal mail fraud in New York, theft in New Jersey, and a large marijuana trafficking operation run out of Greeley, Colorado. He has used at least 16 known aliases and repeatedly fled prosecution, a pattern that led a U.S. Marshal who tracked him to describe him as “very smart, very cunning and very dangerous.”¹

Attempted Murder in Texas

Zandstra’s record traces back to a February 1988 aggravated assault and attempted murder incident.¹ In 1994 he was convicted of attempted murder in Dallas County, Texas, for shooting his ex-wife’s boyfriend, and was sentenced to 12 years.² He served two years before the conviction was vacated on a judicial error. Instead of waiting for retrial, he vanished.³

When he was finally caught in Loveland, Colorado, by a SWAT team in 2004, he pleaded guilty to the Texas charge in exchange for time served.¹

Federal Mail Fraud and Other Financial Crimes

In 1999 Zandstra was convicted in Manhattan of federal mail fraud tied to a bogus vending-machine investment scheme. Prosecutors said he took $276,000 from 29 victims and personally kept more than $50,000.⁴ He fled before sentencing. He was finally sentenced on that case in June 2005 and released from federal prison in January 2006.³

While the mail fraud charge was pending, he was also working as a landscaping foreman in New Jersey, where he embezzled $16,500 from the company in 2000.³¹⁴

Poker, Casino Cheating, and 16 Aliases

While a fugitive from the Texas case, Zandstra turned up in professional poker. In April 1996 he finished ninth out of 528 entrants in the $2,000 Limit Hold’em event at the 27th World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas, winning $15,840.⁵ He was later banned from casinos in both Atlantic City and Las Vegas for cheating, and had already been caught cheating at the Northern Lights Casino in Shingobee, Minnesota, in 1995.⁴

The poker run was part of a broader habit of reinvention. Zandstra cycled through at least 16 aliases, among them Sean Hoeksema, Sean Starke Sr., Berry Johnston, Ken Williams, Mark Little, Peter Dowd, and Joshua House.⁴ He used the identities to evade law enforcement, run fraud schemes, and, by one allegation, marry a second woman while still legally married to Lisa Spain.¹

A Pattern of Flight and Capture

Months after his January 2006 release from federal prison, Zandstra was on trial in Union County, New Jersey, for the 2000 landscaping theft. In July 2006 he disappeared before closing arguments, and the jury convicted him in absentia.⁶ He went back to Colorado and set up marijuana grows in Loveland and Greeley. A U.S. Marshals raid in Loveland in December 2006 found an indoor grow but no Zandstra.¹

Agents tracked him to Greeley. On April 19, 2007, he led marshals and local officers on a high-speed chase, tried to ram a marshal’s vehicle, lost control, and was ejected. He was taken to a Denver hospital with a broken back, a broken leg, and a broken arm.⁷ That fugitive stretch had lasted about nine months.

The 2008 Persistent Offender Sentence

On July 18, 2008, Superior Court Judge James C. Heimlich sentenced Zandstra in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to nine years in state prison for the 2000 landscaping theft. The Union County Prosecutor’s Office had asked for 10 years, arguing that Zandstra qualified as a “persistent offender,” a designation that let the court nearly double the standard five-year maximum for theft.⁶

Judge Heimlich agreed with the designation, citing the 1994 Texas attempted murder conviction and the 2000 New York mail fraud conviction. When the defense argued that Zandstra did not pose a danger to society, the judge said, “These are serious types of cases,” and ordered him ineligible for parole for four years.³ Extradition to Colorado on marijuana charges was still pending.

The Greeley Marijuana Trafficking Ring

After finishing his prison term, Zandstra returned to Colorado and built what federal investigators described as a national drug syndicate operating under the cover of a small medical marijuana grow. The hub was Green Thumb Garden Supply, at 2380 W. 27th Street in Greeley, which received and distributed processed marijuana.⁸

Investigators said Zandstra used two valid industrial hemp licenses as cover.⁹ The ring maintained pipelines to Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming. He allegedly worked under names including “Hans Zandstra” and “Dirk DeHaan, Ph.D.,” posing variously as an attorney and a marijuana grow consultant, and the operation ran deals and laundered proceeds through Bitcoin wallets including Exodus, Jaxx, Electrum, and Celium rather than through banks.⁸

The case opened after neighbors reported Zandstra moving large duffel bags from a property in June 2016. A search in July 2016 turned up 97 marijuana plants. Warrants were served on October 31 and November 1, 2017, at 15 locations across Weld, Larimer, Boulder, and Adams counties. Officers seized 2,100 marijuana plants, several hundred pounds of processed marijuana, and 21.4 pounds of hash oil. Zandstra was booked into the Weld County Jail along with employees Tyler Greco and Michael Conway.¹⁰⁹

In April 2018 the U.S. Attorney’s office filed a forfeiture claim in Denver U.S. District Court seeking four homes, 31.4 Bitcoin (then worth about $279,143), and $912,443 in cash pulled from safe-deposit boxes, storage units, vehicles, and residences. A single gun safe in a Longmont storage unit held $240,700 in cash.⁸

Zandstra faced charges in two separate Weld County District Court cases covering drug conspiracy, marijuana cultivation and distribution, money laundering, and tax evasion.¹¹ Final dispositions on his charges are not detailed in available reporting; court records show that as of October 2019 he was still being held as a detainee at the Weld County Jail.¹²

Television Profile

Zandstra’s history was the subject of Season 2, Episode 13 of the Investigation Discovery series I (Almost) Got Away With It, titled “Got 9th Place,” which aired on January 19, 2011. The episode traced the attempted murder conviction, his flight before retrial, and his World Series of Poker finish before his eventual capture.²

1
The Denver Post. Convict’s Charm Finally Hits Limit
2
Apple TV. Got 9th Place – I (Almost) Got Away With It
3
NJ.com. Career Criminal Zandstra Sentenced to 9 Years
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New York Post. Ace of Con Men Poker Shark on Lam From N.J.
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WSOP. Randy Zandstra Player Profile
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The Trentonian. Career Criminal Zandstra Sentenced to 9 Years
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The Philadelphia Inquirer. On Run, Then in Hospital, He’ll Be Called to Account in N.J.
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The Denver Post. Greeley Medical Marijuana Bust
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Denver7. Investigators: Black Market Marijuana Operation Spanned Four Colorado Counties
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Greeley Tribune. Police Say Career Criminal Used Greeley Garden Store as Front for Marijuana Trafficking Operation
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Greeley Tribune. National Drug Ring Disguised as Greeley Medical Pot Grow Traded in Cryptocurrency, Feds Say
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Justia. Zandstra v. Kanetta et al