Queens marijuana bust yields 3,500 pounds of pot

A Monday morning stop in Queens resulted in six drug dealers getting busted with a truck full of approximately 3,500 pounds of pot worth $3.5 million on Monday, authorities said in a New York Daily News report.

Members of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force saw the men moving boxes, which were stacked “6 feet high” on seven pallets, from an 18-wheeler into a U-Haul truck and cargo van parked across from the Good Fortune Supermarket in Elmhurst, the Queens DA’s office claimed in the article.

District Attorney Richard Brown was quoted in a related ABC New York report, saying, “The defendants, who hail from California, Canada and Brooklyn, made a mistake by stopping in Queens County to distribute their illegal wares. They now face serious drug charges.”

Police recovered a massive supply of marijuana, which was in vacuum-sealed packages, as well as between $200,000 and $300,000 in cash, according to the Daily News.

Police Commissioner William Bratton was quoted by ABC, “I commend the work of the Drug Enforcement Task Force for intercepting this large amount of illegal drugs before it could be distributed onto the streets of New York City.”

All six men are charged with criminal possession of marijuana in the first degree, the Daily News reported, adding that each faces up to five and a half years in prison.