New York, Feb 7 (EFE).- The New York authorities announced Tuesday that in the last two weeks they have seized products worth 4.1 million dollars in fifty cannabis shops that were operating without a license, and taking measures to stop the “proliferation” of these businesses.
The Manhattan prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, and the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, reported today a raid against these stores in the Big Apple, the vast majority established before the approval of the cannabis regulatory law and the delivery of the first sales licenses, so far 66 statewide.
In addition to the multimillion-dollar seizure, the New York police have seized 20 trucks and buses that also sold illegal cannabis and are usually seen mostly in the tourist area near Times Square, but also in residential neighborhoods such as the Upper West Side, according to the neighbors reported.
The Prosecutor’s Office has sent letters to some 400 stores in Manhattan demanding that tenants throw out unlicensed cannabis businesses under the threat of eviction, and does not rule out promoting “criminal proceedings for tax evasion, money laundering or sale of cannabis to minors” .
The police estimate that there are more than 1,300 of these stores in the five boroughs of New York, but only one, called Housing Works, which is part of an NGO that helps people with HIV and homelessness and is located in New York, has a license for recreational marijuana. the East Village neighborhood.
The prosecutor and the mayor stressed that the cannabis law that came into effect at the beginning of last year seeks to compensate the black community, historically the most affected by the criminalization of this drug, through the delivery of licenses with social criteria and the redistribution of taxes.
In this sense, Adams pointed out that they do not seek to return to “punishment methods” in the marijuana market but criticized that these stores take customers away from those that do operate legally, and warned that the products they sell may be adulterated with fentanyl , a powerful opiate. EFE
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