How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries • Hacker News Board

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#41

Post by faster » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:11 PM UTC

nathanm412 wrote: post #32

zbyte64 wrote: post #23

The guy employed parolees so they wouldn't turn to crime and he himself didn't have a criminal record. Sad he took his life.

It now seems more likely that he turned to parolees because he knew he could control them better and they probably already knew the business.

It's fairly clear in the article that the parolees were not working on the grow side.

"One investigator said Mondella’s employees were likely unaware of the doings in that stealth basement. These employees include parolees that Mondella was known to hire from the nearby housing project, giving them a chance to not let a crime define their lives."

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#42

Post by peterwwillis » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #36

monochromatic wrote: post #30

> You have to think that were it not for the instantly accessible gun in an ankle holster, the moment of panic and perhaps shame might have just passed. He might even now be producing cherries with the method that became prevalent after Prohibition made alcohol as illegal as pot has been. Of course the anti-gun Daily Beast couldn't go an entire article without blaming a gun for something a person decided to do.

I downvoted you. Please don't derail this topic and turn it into a gun debate. Thanks. edit: never mind. judging by the downvotes, I guess people really enjoy their endless gun debates!

You don't need to comment on why you downvoted.

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#43

Post by mc32 » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:18 PM UTC

logfromblammo wrote: post #9

mc32 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't get is he had a very successful cocktail cherry business. So he didn't need to run a million dollar illegal business which was a tiny fraction of the legal business.

Some of the profits from the cherry business may have actually been laundered money from the cannabis business. The cherry business might not have been "very successful" on its own. Besides that, the larger legit business provided a great cover for the smaller illegal business. He didn't need to run the grow op to run the cherry factory, but he did need the cherry factory to run the grow op more easily. There's no wa…

It says an informant tattled and then they walked a narc dog which triggered. This enabled them to get a warrant.

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#44

Post by enraged_camel » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:18 PM UTC

peterwwillis wrote: post #42

enraged_camel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted you. Please don't derail this topic and turn it into a gun debate. Thanks. edit: never mind. judging by the downvotes, I guess people really enjoy their endless gun debates!

You don't need to comment on why you downvoted.

I know, but I prefer giving feedback whenever possible. I personally hate being downvoted with no explanation. I call it "drive-by downvoting" and in my opinion it really degrades the experience of the community as a whole.

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#45

Post by zabcik » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #36

monochromatic wrote: post #30

> You have to think that were it not for the instantly accessible gun in an ankle holster, the moment of panic and perhaps shame might have just passed. He might even now be producing cherries with the method that became prevalent after Prohibition made alcohol as illegal as pot has been. Of course the anti-gun Daily Beast couldn't go an entire article without blaming a gun for something a person decided to do.

I downvoted you. Please don't derail this topic and turn it into a gun debate. Thanks. edit: never mind. judging by the downvotes, I guess people really enjoy their endless gun debates!

The point of having threaded comments is to allow new discussion to happen. I'm sure other top level comments won't be a gun debate; even better if you add your own thoughts. Only downvote things if they do not contribute to discussion whatsoever.

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#46

Post by starshadowx2 » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:30 PM UTC

monochromatic wrote: post #30

> You have to think that were it not for the instantly accessible gun in an ankle holster, the moment of panic and perhaps shame might have just passed. He might even now be producing cherries with the method that became prevalent after Prohibition made alcohol as illegal as pot has been. Of course the anti-gun Daily Beast couldn't go an entire article without blaming a gun for something a person decided to do.

Regardless of being anti or pro-gun, they are completely right. If he had not had his gun with him it would have been impossible for him to shoot himself.

Of course if he was really determined and it wasn't just a passing feeling he would've found another way, so I agree with you that you can't blame gun ownership on this.

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#47

Post by citruspi » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:36 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #11

DarkTree wrote: post #4

Every time an event like this happens, or kidnapped victims are revealed being hidden in a house for the past 15 years, or a previously unknown serial-killer is finally caught, it makes me wonder how many of these events are still carrying on unnoticed.

Modern slaves who are trapped in homes and forced to farm cannabis is a thing in England, so that's probably more common than you think over here. Here's an article from 2008. http://www.newstatesman.com/law-and-reform/2008/11/cannabis-... And another from 2015. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0LU00P20150226

Non-mobile link for the Reuters article - http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/26/us-britain-slavery...

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#48

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:38 PM UTC

enraged_camel wrote: post #44

peterwwillis wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to comment on why you downvoted.

I know, but I prefer giving feedback whenever possible. I personally hate being downvoted with no explanation. I call it "drive-by downvoting" and in my opinion it really degrades the experience of the community as a whole.

[deleted]

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#49

Post by x5n1 » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:44 PM UTC

ics wrote: post #8

mc32 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't get is he had a very successful cocktail cherry business. So he didn't need to run a million dollar illegal business which was a tiny fraction of the legal business.

$20 million cherry business, $XX million cannabis business according to the article.

They found a few pounds, they speculated (and they would not exaggerate would they, after spending years trying to nail him?) that he was doing $XX million in weed sales.

Re: How Bees Revealed a Pot Farm Beneath the Maraschino Cherries

#50

Post by jmeyerdev » Thu, Aug 13, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #43

logfromblammo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the profits from the cherry business may have actually been laundered money from the cannabis business. The cherry business might not have been "very successful" on its own. Besides that, the larger legit business provided a great cover for the smaller illegal business. He didn't need to run the grow op to run the cherry factory, but he did need the cherry factory to run the grow op more easily. There's no wa…

It says an informant tattled and then they walked a narc dog which triggered. This enabled them to get a warrant.

Actually, FTA:

>The dog became alert, indicating it sensed marijuana.

>“We figured we had something,” the investigator says.

>But they did not have enough to secure a search warrant.