Smuggling drugs into New York City is serious and big business. For many, this is a process to be done carefully and with thorough attention to detail, and oftentimes smaller shipments. For the people packing the truck driven by driver and co-driver Ruben Rodriguez, 53, and Jose Santa Cruz Cheno, 59, respectively, they took little to no care.
Pulling into the Greenwich Township Weigh Station, the duo was in a commercial tractor-trailer and allegedly hauling oranges from California to Queens. Selected for screening, they were visually inspected, where 12 pallets of unidentified cardboard boxes were in with the pallets of oranges. This means a little under half of the usual 26 pallets were boxes that were not made for the transportation or storage of oranges.
Instead, these boxes contained 3.2 tons of hydroponic marijuana, 40 pounds of Delta 9A powder, and over 5,000 packages of various cannabis products. In total, the drugs had a street value of $28.4 million. Charged with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of marijuana, and conspiracy to distribute marijuana, the duo will easily be looking at a lengthy jail sentence.
This is the result of a failed legalization process. With NY being unsure of how to legalize marijuana, shops rushed to open before they had secured a license or proper supplies. Instead, they sold what they could get their hands on as quickly as possible. No testing, certifications, or oversight. For the proprietors of these cash-only businesses, the risks far exceeded the rewards, and NY state and NYC officials are aware of it.
If NY wanted to prevent this kind of flooding of the underground markets with marijuana from another legalized state, they could have simply done the legalization process the right way. The perpetual money grab the Democrats have utilized in their states has largely been disastrous and benefits nobody. Make it an open market without restrictions on the number available and monitor the licenses. Require batch testing, and tax the hell out of it, as states with proper programs have proven, they’ll gladly pay the extra cost for that they want.
