Officers from the NYPD’s 114th Precinct in Astoria responded around 3 a.m. on 8 August 2024 to a report of a burglary in progress at a warehouse on Second Street.[1] The two men, John Betancourt, 36, of Ridgewood, and James Pennisi, 38, of Chester, Pennsylvania, tried to flee on foot when police arrived and were arrested.[2] A criminal complaint alleges that officers recovered 27 one-pound packages of marijuana outside the warehouse and a further 77 pounds of marijuana in three garbage bags beside a neighbouring building, about 104 pounds (about 47.2 kg) in all.[2]

Officers found two men fleeing the warehouse with large bags and, after arresting them, found nearly 100 pounds of cannabis flower inside the bags.[3] The NYPD obtained a search warrant and officers from both departments descended on the warehouse on the afternoon of 8 August 2024.[3] Inside the warehouse officers found cannabis flower, pre-rolls, THC edibles, THC vape products, THC concentrate and jars of THC oil, along with psilocybin mushroom chocolate bars and two machines used to manufacture homemade vape products.[3] None of the products was regulated and the warehouse had no state licence to sell them, according to Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Francesca Rosa.[3]

The city’s sheriff, Anthony Miranda, described the building as a distribution point supplying locations in the city and beyond.[4] The sheriff first valued the confiscated products at $5 million.[5] The Sheriff’s Office later put the total seized at $12 million, $7 million higher than the estimate it reported the morning after the raid.[4] Lieutenant Francesca Rosa of the Sheriff’s Office said the seizure was one of the largest the office had made, though not the largest.[6] Officials described it as one of the biggest marijuana raids in New York City’s history.[7] Betancourt and Pennisi were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on multiple drug and drug-related charges and held in lieu of bail.[2] The Sheriff’s Office padlocked the warehouse after the raid and its investigation remained open.[4] Rosa said it was still unclear whether the two arrested men were connected to the warehouse operation or had truly been burglarising the property.[3]

The seizure came during Operation Padlock to Protect, the sheriff’s campaign with the NYPD and other city agencies against unlicensed cannabis shops, launched on 30 May 2024.[4] The Queens Daily Eagle reported that the seizure equalled 30 percent of all cannabis the city confiscated between June and August 2024.[4]