TAKING A 400G ‘HIT’
No-license pot biz
The owner of nearly a dozen illegal pot shops has agreed to fork over more than $400,000 in a deal struck with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Rami Alzandani will pay $103,000 in restitution to the state Department of Taxation and Finance and forfeit another $300,000 in ill-gotten gains as part of the non-prosecution agreement he signed with prosecutors over his 11 shops accused of illegally selling weed in Manhattan and Queens, the DA’s Office said.
Four of his shops pleaded guilty to cannabis possession charges and paid $5,000 in fines. These stores include Jacks Convenience on Broadway on the Upper West Side; On the Rocks Convenience on West 48th Street in the Diamond District; West Coast Convenience on West 72nd Street on the Upper West Side; and Jeeters Convenience on Eighth Avenue in Midtown.
Alzandani’s stores were busted when undercover investigators with the DA’s Office made purchases there, prosecutors said.
The shops are allowed to remain in business but are banned from selling weed and will be subject to random inspections for the next three years, under the terms of the agreement.
The stores must also attest to the fact that they aren’t dealing the drug in a written certification every three months. Alzandani also can’t sell any of his stores without getting approval first, according to the agreement.
“Cannabis legalization in New York state was designed to advance racial equity and fairness, and the rules must be followed,” DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “Public safety is also harmed when there is such a huge proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated storefronts selling cannabis products that have not been properly inspected.”
Bragg’s on it
Bragg said that his office is working with law enforcement to continue cracking down on illegal pot shops and working with landlords as they attempt to evict these types of shops.
“Today there are fewer illegal cannabis shops on the Upper West Side thanks to DA Bragg,” said City Councilmember Gale Brewer. “Two of the stores were selling within half a block of three DOE schools and a public playground.”
Brewer said the case involving Alzandani confirms that many of these types of shops are owned by the same people.
Alzandani’s lawyer didn’t return a request for comment Tuesday.
New York has begun a push to put an end to illegal weed shops, as some 1,500 have popped up in the city in the past few years.
The state Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance can issue fines of between $10,000 and $20,000 a day to stores illegally selling pot.
The DA has targeted 50 shops for probes and has been in talks with landlords to explore beginning evictions of the businesses.