Cree XP-G3 Photo Red 660nm bare LED

You are correct with the 1.5 amp max spec. Thats what Cree suggest but at BLF we push things a bit harder to find out what they can take and where failure is.
Cree’s suggested max for a xp-l2 is 3 amps but look at what it will actually do if you use a copper mcpcb with good thermal transfer.