Law enforcement agents raided two illegal cannabis shops in the Bronx which led to the seizure of more than one million dollars in unlawful weed products, Mayor Eric Adams and other city officials announced on Wednesday.
Officers from both the NYPD and the NYC Sheriff’s Office closed the shops early Wednesday morning while the Sheriff’s Joint Compliance Task Force was conducting inspections at 51 locations throughout the city. The mayor announced the operation during a July 17 press conference at one of the closed sites, located at 4011 East Tremont Ave. in Throggs Neck.
The other shop was located down the road at 3770 East Tremont Ave.
At this time, city officials estimated that at least $1 million in illegal cannabis products had been seized from both locations. Some of the items, which Adams held up during Wednesday’s press event, were sold in eye-catching packaging to attract kids.
“You look at the colorful packaging, you look at super lemon, cherry,” the mayor said. “These are items that there is a clear attempt to — number one — attract our young people and — number two — have the products that those who are familiar with what cannabis looks like. They are building out a pipeline of customers and they’re going to the traditional customers.”
The bust was part of Operation Padlock to Protect, the city’s initiative launched in May to shut down unlicensed smoke and cannabis shops around the Big Apple.
At the 3770 East Tremont Ave. location, officers seized 176 pounds of cannabis flower, 0.6 pounds of THC vape products and psilocybin mushroom edibles. Officials said the cannabis flower was found in hidden compartments under a couch, covered by ceiling tiles, in filing cabinets and luggage bags, and in plain view.
The inspection also uncovered a back door at a bodega at 4011 E. Tremont Avenue in the Bronx that led to a warehouse where deputies found pallets worth of cannabis flower, THC pre-rolls, THC vape products, THC concentrate, THC edibles, psilocybin edibles and psilocybin concentrate.
The task force also found empty containers to pack products and a room that appeared to be set up to grow cannabis plants, leading law enforcement to suspect it is a likely distributor.
“This was the main distributor,” Adams said. “They turned this into a chain-store industry. We must get to the heart of who is in charge of the distribution and the delivery.”
NYC Sheriff Anthony Miranda said the community played a key role in closing down the smoke shops.
“We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to keep our communities safe from these unregulated and dangerous products,” he said. “The information we obtain from the community via 3-1-1 complaints and from elected officials are critical to the success of Operation Padlock to Protect.”
Since the launch of Operation Padlock to Protect, the city has sealed a total of 639 shops and issued 32,392 counts of violations amounting to over $51 million in penalties, Adams said.
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