Oregon man who sold THC-laced fake cereals, candies nationwide gets 13-year prison term

Medicated Rice Krispies Bar. Reese’s Puffs Krispier Bar. PolkaDot Mushroom Belgian Chocolate.

The man who made, marketed and sold these colorful but fake THC- and psilocybin-laced cereal and candy edibles was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in prison.

Jered Jeremiah Hayward

manufactured the goods in a Salem warehouse and distributed them across the United States and overseas, prosecutors said.

He co-opted the names and logos of popular products and put


children at exceptional risk with flashy packaging that contained only fine-print warnings that the products contained THC and were for adults, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher L. Cardani said.

“Anybody who’s been around children has to be offended by the recklessness in selling the products as he did,” Cardani said.

The online mass marketing of nearly $3 million worth of butane hash oil, THC-packaged candy and cereals and psilocybin mushrooms marked Hayward’s fourth drug distribution conviction. Three of the four were federal drug trafficking convictions.

He turned to selling the products while on supervision after a 2017 federal conviction for fentanyl distribution.

“He’s a career offender,” U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio said. “He’s also a habitual and recalcitrant drug trafficker.”

His motivation was “strictly greed” and his disregard for the law, court orders and community safety was “astounding,” said Cardani and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kemp L. Strickland.

In January, Hayward pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 1000 kilogram or more of marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering from January 2020 through Sept. 17, 2024.

Defense lawyer Jay W. Frank argued for a 10-year prison term. He cited Hayward’s health problems as a mitigating factor, including a stroke he suffered in 2023 that has impaired his eyesight and hearing.

But Baggio pointed out that Hayward, 45,


continued his lucrative drug distribution business even after his stroke.

Hayward accepted the blame. “What was said was true,” he said. “I can’t sugarcoat it. I was wrong, man. … In my mind, I was thinking, marijuana is not that bad.”

But he did complain about his physical state, noting he needs help to take a shower and has to eat through a straw.

Baggio said she was sympathetic to his physical impairments and reduced the prosecutors’ recommended 14-year prison term by one year.

But the judge added: “You got yourself in a really bad situation” that calls for serious punishment.

She accepted an agreement the government reached with prosecutors that allows for Hayward to remain out of custody to undergo surgery on June 10 and ordered him to surrender to federal marshals on July 11 to begin serving his prison term.

The government also has filed civil forfeiture complaints to seize the Salem production facility, approximately $1 million confiscated in cash found in a trunk of a car under bags of psilocybin,


12 vehicles, two off-road vehicles, one pontoon boat, gold and silver bars and coins worth about $400,000, Rolex watches and about $640,000 in bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Hayward and his accomplices used three sham business names – Always Native, Bottlesandtins.com and A2Z Transport – to disguise their black market drug distribution. They received payments for the illicit products in cash, cryptocurrency and digital transactions.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began the investigation in 2021. A man charged with selling narcotics outside of Oregon identified Hayward’s Telegram channel as the source of his marijuana and marijuana products, investigator James Stratton wrote in a federal affidavit.

They found what was described as a “complex operation” run out of the Salem warehouse, where about 10 workers converted bulk raw marijuana into marijuana derivatives, such as butane hash oil, vape cartridges and other THC products, and processed psilocybin mushroom-infused edibles.

Investigators observed the warehouse and other businesses linked to Hayward using pole cameras and obtained warrants last fall to search six properties, Cardani said.

Hayward marketed the products online using an encrypted Telegram channel and customers typically paid for the drugs on cash apps, investigators said.


Most of the products were shipped to customers across the country using the U.S. Postal Service, but some loyal local customers did pickups, and other goods were sent overseas, Cardani said.

From January 2022 through July 2023 alone,


investigators documented at least 2,578 Cash App payments to the operation that exceeded $2.4 million, Cardani said.

Federal agents observed the shipment of at least 350 parcels from the main production warehouse at 1910 Vista Avenue Southeast in Salem to locations across the United States, as well as tracked 1,126 packages believed to contain cash sent by alleged customers via U.S. mail to Hayward’s Salem operation, the affidavit said.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X


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