Up in smoke in Bx.
A BRONX superintendent was busted for turning his building’s basement into a major marijuana grow house, police and neighbors said Sunday.
Alberto Martinez, 65, was charged with criminal possession of marijuana after firefighters were called to put out a blaze on Chatterton Ave. near Olmstead Ave. in Parkchester just before midnight Saturday.
Inside the apartment, firefighters discovered more than a dozen bags of marijuana, officials said.
The smell of smoldering cannabis from the drug den wafted down the street for hours after the flames were put out.
All told, police removed 17 garbage bags of marijuana from the house, according to a cop source.
The Fire Department was investigating the cause of the blaze.
The discovery of the grow house inside the two-story brick home shocked neighbors — including a staffer at a day care center located three doors away.
“It’s crazy,” said day care employee Samantha Johnson. “Most of our kids live on the block.”
She said she never suspected any nefarious activity at the home.
“Nothing that would raise any eyebrows,” Johnson said. “Just regular comings and goings.”
Residents of the building said Martinez was quiet, did not speak much English and carried out his responsibilities as superintendent dutifully.
One neighbor who lives two doors down described a constant crowd in and around the apartment, including cars that would doublepark for visitors to drop in and out.
But the neighbor, who declined to give his name, said he never suspected someone inside was growing copious amounts of cannabis.
Last October, cops found a similar grow house in Morris Heights.
That drug den inside a five-story apartment building on University Ave. near W. 179th St. was discovered after someone reported the smell of marijuana and chemicals coming from a rear basement apartment.
The Morris Heights pot farm was found less than a week after Bronx Battalion Chief Michael Fahy was killed by debris when a marijuana grow house in Kingsbridge exploded.