Exactly. The bees were just a ruse for them to raid the factory. Tragic ending indeed.

The bees weren't just a ruse for them to raid the factory. They investigated him for illegal runoff based on speculation in the New York Times that that was how the bees were turning red, even though the cause of the red bees had already been determined to be something else.

Usually, when you have a pretext to do something, at least the pretextual reason is, you know, true.

>Usually, when you have a pretext to do something, at least the pretextual reason is, you know, true.

Which is a worse kind of lie that directly lying (as it cheapens truth into a mere pretext), and which he correctly characterized as a "ruse".

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 way he could have run it undetected for at least six years in the heart of NYC without the cherries on top.

I suspect that the cops had access to illegally obtained evidence, and the bee thing was the only way they had to legitimize what they already knew.

> I suspect that the cops had access to illegally obtained evidence, and the bee thing was the only way they had to legitimize what they already knew.

It's quite common and is called parallel construction[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction

They only use parallel construction to protect you. Do you hate your own freedom so much that you'd criticize your authoritative betters?

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.

My bad, you're right. They went in with the excuse of investigating illegal dumping.. That's when they came across the hidden door and stairwell --but that was instigated by the triggered dog. Else they were going to wrap up the investigation.

$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.