Atlantic City police thought they were dealing with a normal marijuana bust when they raided an alleged drug dealer’s home Friday. They seized a pound of weed, a gun, hollow point bullets, and money which they believe is profit from the suspect's pot-dealing business. Oh, and they also found two pet alligators. more ›

The State Liquor Authority sent six men and women, ages 18 to 20, to over 200 New York City bodegas to attempt to buy booze—and, sure enough, at 123 locations, the underaged succeed. The Daily News has details on the three-day sting, "Of the bodegas visited by the SLA, the Bronx had the highest citation rate. Thirty-eight of the 48 stores - about 79% - sold alcohol to underage spies in the borough. Manhattan wasn't far behind with 75% of the bodegas selling to customers under the age of 21." more ›

Last night and early this morning the NYPD's Auto Crime unit, along with the Attorney General's office, went about dismantling a sophisticated and large car theft and resale ring which they say stole hundreds of cars worth more than $100 million dollars. The bust, which pulled in 18 alleged crooks, came after a nine-month investigation based on a tip. more ›

Connecticut police seized more than $6 million worth of cocaine yesterday which authorities are calling one of the biggest drug busts in state history. And they couldn't have done it without logistics-obsessed delivering company UPS. more ›

Whenever a massive shootout happens in the middle of Times Square in a movie, most New Yorkers sit back and laugh, knowing that stuff never actually happens here. But when a McDonalds parking lot is involved, fantasies do come true! Yesterday, agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency opened fire on a suspect near 34th Street and Tenth Avenue after he fled in a van from a botched sting operation (the Post says it was a drug bust) outside a McDonald's. One witness said, "I thought it was a movie being filmed. I felt like I was back in Vietnam. I thought, 'Oh no, not again!' " more ›

Keith Harrington, 47, and his brother Craig, 49, were arrested yesterday morning for running a $1 million a year marijuana operation after cops raided their Staten Island home and discovered this beautiful growhouse. Just look at those verdant greens! So lush! Police seized 376 marijuana plants along with various paraphernalia used to grow the plants, and the brothers and Craig's 18-year-old son were arrested on various drug charges. more ›

Police have arrested 31 spectators, two alleged operators and removed 35 roosters from a Central Islip residence known for housing cockfighting matches. Officers serving a search warrant found a cockfight going on Saturday evening; four people were arrested at the same location for cockfighting two years ago. The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals assisted police, and Chief Roy Gross told Newsday, "this is a substantial bust." more ›

A doctor from the Dominican Republic was arrested Monday for luring New Yorkers out of the country with offers of cheap plastic surgery and then giving them exactly what they paid for. 51-year-old Hector Cabral, who is not licensed to practice medicine in New York, has allegedly been coming to town since at least 1999 to work the city's spa and salon scene for potential clients (he liked to whip out his black marker on the spot). Once he'd hooked them with offers of affordable boob jobs and liposuction they would fly to Santa Domingo, but the doctor's work was not so much magic—his patients were allegedly left with substantial pain, scarring and permanent disfigurement afterward. more ›

Rap mogul Kareem “Biggs” Burke, one of the co-founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, was among 43 people arrested today in a massive marijuana wholesale ring based in New York and Florida. The 18-month investigation into the ring resulted in nearly $2 million in seized profits and 360 pounds of marijuana. Along with Burke, another notable bust was Matthew Stang, a writer and senior ad rep at High Times magazine. "In the case of the High Times employee, it’s a case of art imitiating real life," said Jim Hayes special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. more ›

In a move that apparently shocked nobody on the block, cops busted a massage parlor on East 78th Street on Monday for charging customers for sex. Cops raided the den and charged Wangshan Ye, 22, and Le Zhou, 40, for prostitution. Upstairs neighbor Derek Karney told the Daily News, "Everyone in the building knows what's going on in there. This place has adult ads on craigslist." The shop, which had only been open for about two months advertised "magic massage—beautiful girl," "high tone Asian acupressure," and "most excellent care." We wonder how many roses they charged? more ›

Six members of a coast-to-coast prescription pill ring that brought more than $1 million worth of "mind-bending" drugs from California into NYC were busted and indicted by Brooklyn federal prosecutors today. And according to the crack comedy writers over at the News, "these guys aren't feeling so groovy anymore." Womp womp. more ›

Life just got a lot less convenient for stabby folks who stock up on blades at the local hardware store. After the Manhattan D.A. launched a new initiative to get knives off the streets, investigators discovered illegal switchblades and gravity knives at 41 stores, ranging from mom-and-pop stores to chain behemoths like Home Depot. Now two national chain stores and five other operations have agreed to stop selling the items. These companies, as well as the 34 others implicated in the bust, handed over their existing stock and $1.9 million—their total profits from the weapons. more ›

A middle-aged couple was arrested for selling crack on the mean streets of gritty SoHo. Antonio Henriques, 51, and his wife Mary, 47, lived and worked out of a basement of a building on Sullivan Street between Prince and Houston. According to the Post, the pair "attracted a parade of seedy buyers who would line up early in the morning, waiting near designer shops and million-dollar condos." Police say they had been selling for at least three months; they were arrested at the end of April, and 192 bags of crack were found in their possession (for some comparison, police only recovered 41 bags of crack in a massive Rockaway bust earlier this year). One local resident described the scene the morning after the arrest: "There was a group of despondent crackheads roaming the street." more ›

A Bronx drug operation was taken down by members of city, state and federal agencies in "Operation Siesta." DEA agent Wilbert Plummer said, "Innocent men, women and children had to live in fear of the drug dealers who used 11 apartments to stash, sell, and cook drugs for street level sales." Fifteen people were arrested, including alleged leader Jose Delorbe, and $175,000 in cash, two illegal guns and 14 pounds of heroin and cocaine were found in hidden compartments in 11 Bronx apartments. more ›

A week ago, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was criticized for being "soft" on drug dens, so now he's making up for lost time: following last Friday's Bloods/Crips bust, the NYPD arrested 17 members of two northern Manhattan drug crews for selling cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana today. more ›

Police raided an apartment in the Bronx yesterday and discovered more than $1 million worth of heroin. Seven kilos of heroin were found in the Sterling Avenue apt. where the heroin mill was run out of; the heroin had already been cut and placed into 50,000 glassine envelopes that sell for about $20 each, said the city Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. They were labeled with names such as "Maserati," "Heat Wave" and "Body Bag." more ›

38 people—including an NYC firefighter, a sanitation worker, and a highway repairman—were indicted yesterday [pdf] on charges of operating two "highly sophisticated illegal sports gambling enterprises" in Queens and as far afield as Nevada and Costa Rica. The enterprises allegedly generated approximately $178 million over the past three years, and included toll-free telephone numbers and five known gambling websites, such as 5dimes and Big on Sports. Queens DA Richard Brown gloats: more ›

Owners of a Chinatown property dubbed the "Counterfeit Triangle" will pay the city a settlement of $800,000 for housing shops that sold fake purses, watches and jewelry, purportedly made by Fendi, Rolex, Tiffany and more. From now on the three-cornered area with addresses on Canal Street, Baxter Street, Centre Street and Walker Street will be home to only legitimate businesses (Starbucks offered one seller $12,000 a month for his corner storefront). "Property owners should know that they are responsible for what goes on in their buildings and that hosting illegal activity like counterfeiting is a losing proposition," said Mayor Bloomberg in a statement. more ›

About a half-dozen businesses along Nostrand Avenue in Crown Heights were raided by the NYPD on Tuesday, on charges that owners sold hundreds of pounds of marijuana alongside Caribbean food, incense, clothes, and CDs. The sting snagged the owners of two restaurants, a deli, a bodega, a clothing shop and a music store. "You could go in and get drugs in the food itself or go to the back of the store and pick it up or even buy it over the counter," explained NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly at a press conference in Crown Heights yesterday. "At lunch it turned into a veritable pot-luck event." Gee, one might even say these businesses will now see their profits go up in smoke. more ›

A Bronx man has filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the city claiming he was wrongfully arrested on made-up charges of soliciting sex from an undercover cop—and the NYPD kept him behind bars for so long he missed his father's funeral. "It's very upsetting," 51-year-old security guard Clifton Quarles Jr. said in a statement issued to the Daily News. "My father was my best friend and I missed his funeral. I will have to live with that for a lifetime." more ›

Authorities busted Bronx bodegas for selling "nutcracker"—a sweet cocktail illegally sold to underage drinkers at delis, convenience stores and barbershops across the city. Cops arrested two bodega employees and the state suspended the beer licenses at two Mott Haven delis after an under-aged, undercover auxiliary cop was able to purchase the homemade drinks. "This is so outrageous, we are going to seek revocation," said State Liquor Authority Deputy Chief Executive Officer Michael Jones. more ›

Just months after signing a revolutionary medical marijuana bill into law, NJ authorities have seized more than $10 million worth of illegal marijuana and plants, the most in the state’s history. After sniffing a skunky odor coming from a suburban chimney, cops collected more than 115 pounds of harvested marijuana in addition to 3,370 live plants. So far, three have been arrested in connection with the massive operation. “We have not seen anything to match the volume of production of this criminal enterprise,” said Attorney General Paula T. Dow. more ›

The cash windfall from a major marijuana money-laundering ring has gone up in smoke. Investigators recently raided an apartment at 153 Mulberry Street (next to the Italian American Museum) and seized $1.1 million in cash believed to be profits from a large-scale hydroponic pot operation. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Daniel McGehean, the apartment's 32-year-old tenant, and Canadian national Richard Doyon, 37. (According to the Daily News, they also seized an incriminating photo of McGehean standing in a marijuana field.) more ›

Police arrested seven members of the Latin Kings gang accused of stashing heroin and cocaine in the airbag compartments of their cars while they smuggled the drugs into Brooklyn. Before driving across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the suspects purportedly hid the narcotics in "hydraulic trapdoors that were rigged to open when the driver pushed a series of buttons on the dashboard panel in a set order," the Staten Island Advance reports. After an 18-month investigation — which involved undercover drug drug purchases and electronic and visual surveillance — prosecutors alleged that 27-year-old ringleader Jose Arroyave repeatedly sold glassine bags of heroin and $4,000 of cocaine to an informant. An additional suspect has reportedly fled to Puerto Rico. more ›

Staten Island Assemblyman Lou Tobacco was driving to Mayor Bloomberg's inauguration yesterday morning when he was stopped by a woman in pajamas who jumped in front of his car begging for help. The woman told him a man in a black hoodie had broken into several cars nearby, and Tobacco tells the Daily News, "I wasn't having that. Not in my assembly district... I didn't think twice. I threw the car in reverse." Tobacco recalled driving past a "suspicious-looking man" several blocks back, and he quickly caught up with the perp. more ›

It's no shocker that the vast majority of marijuana arrests in NYC ensnare blacks and Latinos. But what's really incredible is how, um, high the number of pot arrests have risen during Mayor Bloomberg's first two terms. The lowest-level marijuana arrests rose 50 percent since Giuliani time, according to a recent study [pdf] by Harry Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College. Last year, the NYPD made more low-level pot arrests "than in the 12 years of Mayor Koch, plus the four years of Mayor Dinkins, plus the first two years of Mayor Giuliani" combined. And all this happened under the Mayor who famously told New York, "You bet I did [smoke pot], and I enjoyed it." more ›

The holidays must be a lucrative time for drivers who lure passengers into their unlicensed taxis at airports, but the Port Authority is making it tough for them this year. Yesterday Queens DA Richard Brown announced [pdf] that a crackdown on unlicensed taxi drivers has resulted in 18 arrests at JFK and LaGuardia. The arrests come a month after Governor Paterson signed a bill increasing penalties for unlawfully soliciting ground transportation at an airport, making it a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,250. more ›

Narcotics investigators seized more than $800,000 and 61 pounds of cocaine worth nearly $1 million in a Williamsburg apartment yesterday. The drugs were hidden under the seat of a portable sauna, and officials say—wait, portable sauna?! Is that really a thing? Turns out yes, it is! It's also one of the last places anyone would want to "chill" while ripping rails, so the suspects probably figured nobody would ever think to look in there for cocaine. Oh well. more ›

A Bensonhurst man was arrested on Wednesday for selling a dark green liquid mixture of alcohol and marijuana. Yes, liquid marijuana! It's news to us, and Capt. Gerard Dowling of the Manhattan South narcotics division says "it has not been seen around here before." The suspect, 32-year-old Anthony Briordy, told cops a four-ounce dose of it was stronger than one "marijuana cigarette," as the Times daintily puts it. more ›

Much of the primo, hydroponically-grown herb you'll find in New York comes from Canada, where an untold quantity passes across the border at the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation, which stretches five miles along the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Naturally, the authorities would like to pull the plug on this source, so six weeks ago Joseph Resnick, the head of the NYPD's narcotics division, took a trip up there to see what could be done. The good news for tokers is that the Mohawk smugglers have this down to a science, and Resnik is "astounded at how lenient the border is." more ›