An investigation into a possible burglary led to a Queens warehouse containing a whopping $5 million worth of marijuana products, a lieutenant with the city’s sheriff’s department told the Daily News.
“This is one of the largest seizures we’ve ever made,” New York Sheriff’s Department Lt. Francesca Rosa told the newspaper. “There’s over $5 million in proceeds.”
Officers from the 114th Precinct were responding to a 911 call about a burglary when they arrested two men outside a warehouse on Second Street near 27th Avenue in Astoria around 3 a.m. Thursday, Rosa said.
After officers discovered the suspects had 100 pounds of marijuana flower, they traced their movements to the Second St. warehouse — where they were stunned to find pallets full of cannabis products as well as forklifts to move them, according to Rosa.
The NYPD contacted the sheriff’s department and authorities arranged for a dumpster to be brought to the scene, where law enforcement could be seen filling the industrial-sized trash can with the warehouse’s illicit stock.
Among the pallets of cannabis products, agents found a machine capable of producing cannabis vape cartridges on a large scale, according to Rosa.
“They have a machine to make their own vape cartridges,” Rosa said. “It’s really industrial scale.”
Louie Patsis, 58, who lives in a building next to the marijuana stash, said the only activity he saw there was at night — and the warehouse’s large door was never left open.
“They only come here in the middle of the night and only for a few hours,” Patsis said. “You never see the big door open.”
“I didn’t expect this to happen in my neighborhood,” Patsis added. “There’s been a lot of development here. I thought the neighborhood was getting better.”
The sheriff’s department has led a citywide crackdown on illicit marijuana stores that has proven so effective that the agency complained in June that it lacked space to hide all the seized weed.
The crackdown on unlicensed cannabis stores across New York follows the decriminalization of recreational marijuana for adults in 2021, which turned the five boroughs into a boomtown for illegal marijuana dispensaries.
Although former Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a Bureau of Cannabis Management to issue licenses to cultivators, sellers and dispensaries, the slow rollout of licensed dispensaries in the state has encouraged unlicensed cannabis sellers.
According to the Office of Cannabis Management website, there are only 57 licensed marijuana dispensaries in the five boroughs. By comparison, there are about 2,900 illegal cannabis stores.
