Chris Bines Hit With 5 Years Behind Bars On Pot Conspiracy Rap

Prolific gay performer Chris Bines will be taking an extended break from his porn career, it appears, after he was slammed with a sentence of nearly five years in a federal penitentiary, which sentence was announced on Monday by the United States Department of Justice. Bines was convicted last year as having allegedly been part of a massive marijuana distribution ring based out of Pensacola, Florida, DOJ officials said. The 31-year-old Bines has a lengthy resumé in the adult industry, first filming scenes for Pulse Distribution in 2010, and later with Raging Stallion, Randy Blue and other production companies. His most recent recorded work came in 2017, the same year he was arrested as part of a pot operation that prosecutors say sold—and laundered the cash from—at least $3.5 million in illegal marijuana.  The arrests came in a state that has seen a burgeoning medical marijuana industry hampered by legal challenges and roadblocks, including a ban on consuming the drug by smoking, even if a doctor recommends smoking marijuana as the most effective way of administering it as medication. Florida first legalized medical marijuana in 2014, but in severely limited form. Last year, the state enacted an amendment to its law, more broadly legalizing the drug for medical use.  But despite Florida’s law, and laws in 28 other states legalizing cannabis for medical use—as well as nine states plus Washington, D.C., where recreational pot in legalized—the black market in weed continues to thrive. The distribution ring in which Bines took part, according to the charges against him, began operation in 2014, continuing until it was busted in a multi-agency operation spearheaded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency last summer. Bines pleaded guilty to, and was sentenced on, only one charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, in an operation that the feds said ultimately spread more than 100 kilograms of the drug throughout Florida; all things considered, a miniscule amount. Seven other defendants were sentenced on distribution and money laundering counts. But Bines’ sentence of 59 months was the third-heaviest of the group, behind only a 90-month and 72-month sentence for two members of the ring who were convicted of both the money laundering and distribution charges. Photo by Escambia County Jail