Amid cannabis crackdown, New York sheriffs stash seized pot wherever they can

City sheriff's deputies have seized so much cannabis from unlicensed marijuana stores during a crackdown that the agency's offices have become a weed haven, with pot stashed in every corner and nooks and crannies they can find, the Daily News has learned.

When the Sheriff's Office was tasked with raiding illegal cannabis stores, the cannabis they removed was initially stored in six poorly ventilated 20-foot shipping containers inside a parking garage at the agency's Long Island City offices on Starr Ave. But officers quickly realized they were collecting more marijuana products than they had space for, union members said.

“We were taking up more than the space we had, so we started putting it in different offices,” Ingrid Simonovic, president of the New York City Deputy Sheriffs' Association, told the News in an interview exclusive.

“Then they started putting them in vehicles.”

So much weed had been collected that sheriff's deputies responsible for checking evidence of weed raids were being inundated by the smell — and some were even getting sick, union officials said.

The crackdown on unlicensed marijuana stores across New York was an effort to stem an explosion following the decriminalization of recreational marijuana for adults in 2021.

With the law's passage, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo created an Office of Cannabis Management that would license cultivators, sellers and dispensaries. Yet the state's slow rollout of licensed dispensaries has created a gray area for unlicensed cannabis sellers, who have begun opening hundreds of brickyards. and mortar stores with reckless abandon.

As a result, there are only 57 licensed marijuana dispensaries in the five boroughs, according to the Office of Cannabis Management website. In comparison, there are around 2,900 illegal pot shops.

Questions about improper storage of seized cannabis surfaced as early as Dec. 1, 2022, about six months after Mayor Adams appointed retired NYPD Sergeant Anthony Miranda as the city's new sheriff, according to court documents . The problems with improper storage of seized cannabis are one of many union criticisms of Miranda's two-year tenure, which Simonovic says has lowered rank-and-file morale with his drastic changes in schedules, job duties and responsibilities of members. — all without a new employment contract.

With Miranda's appointment, deputy sheriffs noticed their duties began to focus more on illegal weed store inspections.

Starting in September, the city sheriff's Page where cannabis was found. pounds of illegal cannabis recovered from a single location in Bay Ridge in November.

Given the limited storage they had for filling the seized cannabis, the union complained about “the unsafe manner and unsafe location in which the marijuana and various liquid nicotine products” were stored, according to a petition for inappropriate practices filed with the city's Office of Communities. Negotiation. The union also emailed sheriff's office leadership regarding “ventilation issues” as the odor was beginning to have an effect.

“We seize marijuana, but we have no idea where it comes from,” a former sheriff's deputy who processed the seized cannabis and other evidence told the News. The former employee wished to remain anonymous. “To be frank, there is something wrong with this marijuana. This is not the marijuana of yesteryear. It smells different. It's very strong.

Sheriff's deputies responsible for checking and storing the marijuana were overwhelmed by the smell, the former employee said.

“It got to the point where my clothes smelled like marijuana,” he said. “It smelled like I smoked weed all the time. My sweat is starting to smell like marijuana.

Requests for better ventilation were ignored. Then the deputy started getting sick.

Complaints about poor ventilation and health concerns were filed with the Office of Public Employee Safety and Health, which conducted an inspection on Dec. 30, 2022, according to court documents. Calls and emails to the office regarding the inspection results were not returned.

A deputy said he “started having really bad headaches” and even felt chest pains. The lawmaker's health problems and visits to doctors were documented in work-related complaints, union officials said.

Some of the seized cannabis, vapes and liquid nicotine were eventually moved to a warehouse in Brooklyn, but workers also began complaining about the smell, the former deputy sheriff said.

“There was no ventilation there either,” he said. “At the time, we were doing these operations seven days a week and we just didn't have anywhere to put it all. They eventually started placing them in random offices and administrative areas, so the whole building smelled like weed.

“When they randomly ran out of offices, they started putting them in vehicles — unmarked, unmarked vehicles,” the former deputy said. “We just put it everywhere.”

On April 19, as pressure mounted for the city and state to take tougher action, Governor Hochul signed a law allowing law enforcement to padlock any unlicensed store caught selling cannabis , giving the city more teeth in its fight to shut down illegal stores. .

“New York City will finally be able to use the full force of the law to inspect, enforce and close illegal dispensaries,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the time.

In early May, when the city launched a multi-agency crackdown on illegal cannabis stores, dubbed “Operation Lock to Protect,” the New York Police Department was tasked with checking and storing the seized cannabis, Simonovic said .

“But there’s no policy or procedure about it, so it’s fluid,” the union official said. “It’s constantly changing from week to week, month to month.”

A City Hall spokeswoman said the sheriff's office and task force have “worked to standardize the process of checking and storing evidence and made significant improvements, including numerous security enhancements, installation of a new ventilation system and other facility improvements.”

“Thanks to Sheriff Miranda’s leadership, the Sheriff’s Task Force closed more than 400 illegal tobacco and cannabis stores in just over a month, protecting the health and safety of New Yorkers,” said spokesperson. “The Sheriff’s Office will continue to follow best practices in all of its operations while striving to protect working class New Yorkers. »

Hearings on the union's improper practices petition began in February and concluded in April. The union was awaiting a decision from the Collective Bargaining Office.

During the first week of the operation, the New York City Sheriff's Joint Task Force, comprised of deputy sheriffs, NYPD officers and members of the city's Department of Consumer Protection and workers, seized illegal cannabis from 75 stores across the five boroughs that were closed and sealed, city officials said.

On May 21, Governor Hochul created a statewide Cannabis Enforcement Task Force, which has so far shut down more than 100 illegal marijuana and tobacco stores across the Empire State.

The crackdown in the city and state has led to a 27% increase in legal cannabis sales, Hochul said.

“We are committed to building the strongest and fairest cannabis market in the country,” Governor Hochul said Tuesday. “To achieve this goal, we promised to accelerate the closure of unlicensed cannabis stores, and I am here today to say: we are making it happen.”