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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDead Cherry Tycoon Reportedly Ran One of NYC's Largest Pot Farms
The pot farm owned and operated by Arthur Mondella, the cherry magnate who killed himself on Tuesday, was reportedly among the largest ever discovered in New York City. The New York Times and New York Daily News report that the grow roomlocated in Dell's Maraschino Cherries Company's basement, behind a hidden door and down a ladderspanned 2,500 square feet and could harvest up to 1,200 pot plants.
While the involvement of the factory's other employees remains unclear, investigators believe Mondella must have had at least some help setting up the complex operation, which included 120 growing lamps, dozens of strains of marijuana seeds, 50 books on horticulture, and an irrigation system.
"The way you have to set that up, there's got to be plumbers and electricians working off the books who are very sophisticated,and it wasn't Arthur Mondella, as far as we know, that had that kind of skills," a law enforcement official told The New York Times. The same official said the farm was the largest investigators had ever seen in New York.
As for why Mondella would turn an apparently thriving business into a huge drug operation, authorities and his family remain baffled, though officials suspect a link to organized crime.
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http://newsfeed.gawker.com/dead-cherry-tycoon-reportedly-ran-one-of-nycs-largest-p-1688438180/+LeahBeckmann
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)tabasco
(22,974 posts)Laws against cannabis are irrational and counterproductive.
How many more lives will be destroyed by the stupidity and cowardice of our government?
Renew Deal
(81,869 posts)They were there for "environmental crimes." There was suspicion that they were illegally dumping cherry juice because honey bees were turning red.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)The guy killed himself when the cops discovered the entrance to the pot garden, which is the real reason they were there.
Renew Deal
(81,869 posts)We can have all the drug war arguments you want, but your comment about "the real reason they were there" isn't based on fact.
On Tuesday, investigators from the Brooklyn district attorneys office, the states Department of Environmental Conservation and the citys Department of Environmental Protection arrived at the plant to search for evidence relating to accusations that Dells had been dumping toxic substances into Red Hooks water supply.
The investigators search warrant was for files, nothing more but when they searched Mr. Mondellas office, something else caught their attention.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/nyregion/marijuana-farm-found-at-a-cherry-business-in-brooklyn.html
http://gothamist.com/2015/02/25/red_hook_cherry_suicide.php
madokie
(51,076 posts)electricity will knock the shit out of you if you aren't paying attention. I learned both as a kid even though I had no training in either. I plumbed my home and I wired my home.
Its not impossible for him to have been both the chief cook and bottle washer. I know I usually am.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Plumbers and electricians could have thought he was growing cherries when they set it up. Those grow systems will grow virtually any plant life.