New York Post

Slaying at Qns. smoke shop

- Larry Celona, Valentina Jaramillo, Dean Balsamini

One person was killed during a “robbery gone bad” at a Queens smoke shop, police said.

The deadly episode unfolded in the Plug Smoke Shop, a CBD and THC joint, at 109-27 Jamaica Ave., shortly after noon Saturday, cops said.

Police responding to a call of shots fired found a 20year-old worker with a gunshot blast in his chest, the NYPD said.

The mortally wounded man was rushed to Jamaica Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. There have been no arrests.

“It’s the same story. They are getting robbed because they do a cash business, and they have drugs; it’s a two for one,” said one weary Queens cop. “Also, there are over 1,200 [smoke shops] in the city. They are in every neighborho­od, good and bad.”

CBD tubes were scattered outside the smoke shop, possible evidence of what the robbers dropped from their heist of CBD cartridges and other drug parapherna­lia. Police are searching for three suspects who took off in a white Toyota, possibly with Florida plates.

The killing is just the latest in a surge of shootings involving city smoke shops.

Last month, a man was fatally shot at a Harlem smoke shop near the busy intersecti­on at 125th Street and Fifth Avenue, police and sources said.

Dramatic footage captured the aftermath of the killing at Level Up Exotics — showing the victim stumbling across the street and collapsing into a pool of blood.

The spike in smoke shop violence had cops beefing up patrols to deal with what has become a “citywide problem,” The Post previously reported.

“You gotta be kidding me. This needs to stop. Right now the city is out of control, and we need to take our city back,” said activist Fernando Mateo, who has been speaking out on behalf of bodega owners being ambushed.

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