A federal indictment unsealed on 24 March 2005 charged Peter Zuccaro, Michael Lezamiz, Leonard Palone, Joseph Iorio and Harry Gabor with running a wholesale hydroponic marijuana ring from three indoor sites in New York since 1997.[1][2] The crew of about 15 people had grossed nearly $12 million, growing cannabis in a warehouse at 1041 East 46th Street and 1510-1514 Schenectady Avenue in Brooklyn, in the basement of Lezamiz’s house in Bayside, Queens, and at a 100-acre summer residence in Andes.[1][2] The Brooklyn warehouse sat across the street from a public elementary school and the Bayside basement across from a parochial school; the growers powered the Brooklyn site with nearly $800,000 in stolen electricity and gas.[1][2]

Agents seized more than 160 plants weighing over 2,600 pounds (about 1.18 tonnes), plus nearly 50 pounds of buds, nine jars of potent keif, a quantity of hashish, a truck, a speedboat and $50,000 in cash, along with $3 million in drug proceeds and real estate in New York and Florida.[1][2] Palone, Lezamiz, Iorio and Gabor were arrested and arraigned the previous week, with three ordered detained and Lezamiz released on $5 million bail; Zuccaro, already jailed in Florida on an unrelated conviction, was due to be arraigned in Central Islip on 24 March.[1][2] The case was built by the Career Dealer Initiative task force of DEA, Nassau and Suffolk county agencies.[1][2]