On an average day, Red Hook's Dikeman Street is quiet and sleepy, decidedly not the sort of place neighbors are accustomed to seeing swarmed with rabid tabloid reporters and investigators trying to figure what the hell was actually going on in the seemingly benign maraschino cherry factory.
Cherry scion Arthur Mondella, 57, fatally shot himself in the bathroom of Dell’s Maraschino Cherries on Wednesday, leaving behind a seemingly robust cherry business, in addition to a highly elaborate weed-growing operation—the largest some investigators claimed they had ever seen in NYC. Two days later, snippets of the larger picture are only beginning to emerge.
The cherry business will go on, the Times reports today, but the DA is investigating the extent to which that operation was merely a fragrant front for the sticky stuff budding below the floorboards—a space large enough to house 1,200 plants. “We’re looking at the actual connections between marijuana and the factory and whether or not some portion of the cherry business there really was an effort to mask the marijuana operation,” a law enforcement source told the paper.
The warehouse was reportedly open for business again by Thursday, though its new de facto owners do have some pesky legal obligations to deal with: Dell's is being being sued by California Fruit Processors for allegedly failing to pay for $106,120 worth of produce.
As for the weed business, sources have speculated that an operation of the size and scale of Mondella's would require more infrastructure than he could reasonably manage alone, prompting authorities to investigate possible mob ties. “That’s why he shot himself. He knew the mob would kill him,” a source told the Post. “Why else would you shoot yourself over 100 pounds of weed? It was the multimillion operation he lost.”
One source from which investigators will not be prying information anytime soon is from Mondella's iPhone 6, which is encrypted with a user-code that neither Apple nor God Himself can unlock.
Mondella, whose grandfather started the now 67-year-old business, was being questioned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to determine whether he was illegally dumping cherry effluvia into the waters near the Red Hook warehouse. About four hours into questioning, however, investigators caught a faint whiff of weed, in addition to noticing a shelf shoddily attached to a wall with magnets.
Mondella excused himself shortly thereafter and shot himself with a .357 Magnum he kept strapped to his ankle.
If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.
