CBS2 Exclusive: Marijuana Grow House Busted In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The NYPD made a major grow house bust in the Bronx.
What's worse, something else found in the University Heights apartment could have left the story with a much different ending, CBS2's Marc Liverman reports.
Only CBS2's cameras were there as police carried out bag after bag filled of marijuana Thursday.
"Too close for comfort," neighbor Lynetta Unger said.
Some of the bags looked as big as large garbage bags, Liverman reported. In all, police said they were filled with 72 marijuana plants – all part of a grow house.
"For months on end, maybe six months or more," said neighbor Margaret Olivencia, who lives right nearby.
She told Liverman the smell coming from the operation was so bad that she called the police.
"We called and they said they couldn't do nothing unless we knew who they were in the apartment to complain about that," she said.
Crime scene tape went up across one section of the building, as police also brought out other evidence.
"I'm always opening up the windows to say we're going to get high in this apartment," Olivencia said. "It's terrible. It's terrible."
The NYPD, the DEA and the Bronx district attorney's office are all involved in the investigation. So far, no one's been arrested.
"It's scary for the kids that are growing up around the neighborhood, because they have to see this every day," said Unger.
Con Ed was also called just before noon to shut down an illegal gas hookup at the apartment.
All this comes less than a year and a half after a firefighter was killed in a gas explosion at another marijuana grow house in the Bronx. Battalion Chief Michael Fahy was inside the apartment when it exploded and was struck by falling debris. He was just 44 years old.
Luckily in this case, the gas line was shut off. Otherwise, this could have been much worse – even deadly, Liverman reported.
