An Albany lawyer with a degree from a prestigious law school pleaded guilty Tuesday to low-level felony charges for her involvement with a Capital District drug ring that allegedly trafficked hundreds of pounds of marijuana from California. Galina German, who was a cum laude graduate of St. John's University School of Law, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree conspiracy, and the Times Union reports that she faces 60 days in jail, five years probation, must pay $45,000 in cash and—this is going to hurt—forfeit her 2010 Mercedes-Benz, which was bought with drug proceeds.

Prosecutors say German ran the drug ring with her live-in boyfriend, Nathaniel Innes, and his brother, Marcus Kirkwood, who allegedly sent the drugs from California. Innes pleaded guilty to criminal sale of marijuana and faces two years in prison, while California prosecutors are handling Kirkwood. According to court papers, the operation was simple: "The object of the conspiracy was to reinvest proceeds from the sale of (marijuana) in the acquisition of additional quantities of marijuana from the state of California for re-sale of marijuana to customers in and around the city and county of Albany."

On at least one occasion, German sent cash from the pot profits to California "ensconced in a microwave oven." She then got back more than ten pounds of pot, sent in a package from Kirkwood. Things went on like this from December of last year until May, though it's unclear how investigators caught wind of the scheme. The Albany District Attorney's office has not returned calls for comment, so we can only assume investigators became suspicious after German hotboxed a courtroom.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for the DA's office explains how they conspiracy was uncovered: Undercover police made controlled buys, and gradully figured out that German and her boyfriend were running an operation to send marijuana from California to Albany. German's role was to send money to buy more weed back to California via wire transfers, and the occasional microwave.