by newera_212 » Tue Jan 03, 2023 10:45 pm
falco wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 12:38 pm
https://www.silive.com/news/2016/07/two ... ss-co.html
A $15 million drug ring led by members and associates of New York's Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, and Colombo crime families was busted yesterday. Twenty-two people were charged as being part of a lucrative marijuana smuggling network that shipped the stuff from California to New York. Chief among them are 76-year-old Gambino capo Michael Paradiso, 60-year-old distributor Frank Parisi, and 51-year-old smuggler Richard Sinde.
I know the wheels were in motion for a long time now to legalize pot... but 2016 was a lifetime ago in the scope of where things are at in NYC now with it. Plus you got the organized crime/LCN angle with that bust, definitely hypes it all up and puts a feather in the cap of whoever drafted the indictment no matter how serious or arguably harmless the crimes were. I remember that bust specifically because of the guy who has ties to Parisi bakery...that's no small time operation. At one point not too long ago you could have found their bread literally everywhere in Queens... neck and neck with Grimaldi's... every grocery store, deli, bodega, pizza parlor, etc.
I've been bouncing back and forth between the city and upstate the past couple months and something funny I noticed upstate are a lot of arabian owned gas stations and those types of places that sell cigs, vape, kratom, energy drinks, basically any legal/quasi-legal vice, etc. are all openly and blatantly selling marijuana now. Noticed it a while ago with edibles being on full display, advertising THC content too, not just CBD edibles. Recently I've seen flower marijuana sold at upstate gas stations out in the open, nobody being ID'ed either lmao. These are the types of places that absolutely would not get a dispensary license if/when they apply for one.
I think some of the places selling bud legitimately have applications out and would happily pay taxes and were just tired of the slow wheels of government.. and the cops don't really seem like they are interested in making a big deal out of it... but I could easily see them making examples out of a few of these cowboys-and-indians (no pun intended) operations to clean things up before legit licensing rollout. I even saw one of these arabian places have psychedelic mushroom chocolates for sale and that's not even legal lmao
[quote=falco post_id=247387 time=1672774706 user_id=89]
[url]https://www.silive.com/news/2016/07/two_si_men_charged_in_cross-co.html[/url]
A $15 million drug ring led by members and associates of New York's Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, and Colombo crime families was busted yesterday. Twenty-two people were charged as being part of a lucrative marijuana smuggling network that shipped the stuff from California to New York. Chief among them are 76-year-old Gambino capo Michael Paradiso, 60-year-old distributor Frank Parisi, and 51-year-old smuggler Richard Sinde.
[/quote]
I know the wheels were in motion for a long time now to legalize pot... but 2016 was a lifetime ago in the scope of where things are at in NYC now with it. Plus you got the organized crime/LCN angle with that bust, definitely hypes it all up and puts a feather in the cap of whoever drafted the indictment no matter how serious or arguably harmless the crimes were. I remember that bust specifically because of the guy who has ties to Parisi bakery...that's no small time operation. At one point not too long ago you could have found their bread literally everywhere in Queens... neck and neck with Grimaldi's... every grocery store, deli, bodega, pizza parlor, etc.
I've been bouncing back and forth between the city and upstate the past couple months and something funny I noticed upstate are a lot of arabian owned gas stations and those types of places that sell cigs, vape, kratom, energy drinks, basically any legal/quasi-legal vice, etc. are all openly and blatantly selling marijuana now. Noticed it a while ago with edibles being on full display, advertising THC content too, not just CBD edibles. Recently I've seen flower marijuana sold at upstate gas stations out in the open, nobody being ID'ed either lmao. These are the types of places that absolutely would not get a dispensary license if/when they apply for one.
I think some of the places selling bud legitimately have applications out and would happily pay taxes and were just tired of the slow wheels of government.. and the cops don't really seem like they are interested in making a big deal out of it... but I could easily see them making examples out of a few of these cowboys-and-indians (no pun intended) operations to clean things up before legit licensing rollout. I even saw one of these arabian places have psychedelic mushroom chocolates for sale and that's not even legal lmao