From the “you cannot make this shit up dept.”: N.Y. maraschino cherry tycoon kills self as inspectors discover pot business
Wow. Sad, really sad.
Was going to make a joke about the Maraschino Mafia upon first glance of your OP title…but no.
And yes, one of those “WTF?” moments.
I feel terrible but I just have to --------- sorta popped his own cherry in a lot of ways.
You really had to take a pot shot at him?
What can I say? I’m a bad seed.
There is more to this.
This isn’t just “I can’t live with the shame”… as possibilities go, that one is a long shot. “Investment in equipment” was how he described recent business changes and he had the cherry business and the separate pot business.
I don’t know the Brooklyn drug world, but as a money laundering investment, I could see this guy’s “pot partners” fronting refit money with interest as part of their partnership… loans that might not need the paperwork of a bank,
but loans where you never name your banker no matter what.
Look, for all I know, Redhook is nothing like that old story written by Henry Hill in Goodfellas:
“But now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week, no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? Fuck you, pay me.”
All I really know is he had a legitimate business. It had ups and downs. Its cash flow seemed solved. It was a front for an illegal pot growing and stolen goods storage operation. He committed suicide. He can’t testify against who he was in business with. He left a family that doesn’t know his former business partners. Look, its like LEGO pieces; I’m just seeing what could be built with them.