'Cornbread Mafia' leader, nabbed after 8 years, pleads guilty to pot charge; faces 5-year sentence

Johnny Boone

John Robert "Johnny" Boone, the former leader of a huge, Kentucky-based marijuana operation styled the "Cornbread Mafia," could spend the next five years in prison after pleading guilty to marijuana-cultivation charges after eight years as a fugitive.

"On Dec. 19, Boone admitted that on May 27, 2008, in Washington County, he conspired with other persons to possess more than 1,000 marijuana plants, intending to cultivate and grow the plants and distribute the marijuana when the plants were harvested. Boone also admitted to watering and fertilizing the plants, and concealing them on a farm in Washington County on Walker Lane near his residence," The Lebanon Enterprise reports. His sentencing is scheduled for March 15.

Boone went on the lam after his farm in Springfield was raided in 2008 and federal agents seized 2,400 marijuana plants. Known as the "Godfather of Grass" and "King of Pot," he was arrested in Dec. 2016 near Montreal, Mike Stunson reports for The Lexington Herald-Leader.

Boone spent more than a decade in prison after being arrested in 1987 on charges of growing 182 tons of marijuana, and served two years in 1982 after the FBI caught him with more than 500 pounds of marijuana, Stunson reports.

"Despite his reputation, Boone was beloved in Marion and Washington counties," Stunson reports. "Former U.S. Marshal Rick McCubbin told the Louisville Courier Journal that he took care of the community, and residents repaid Boone by not disclosing his whereabouts when he was on the run."