Investigators seize $1.1M in profits from marijuana money-laundering ring in Little Italy flat

Investigators seize $1.1M in profits from marijuana money-laundering ring in Little Italy flat

  February 08, 2010    Dapper_Don

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Investigators have seized $1.1 million in cash from a Little Italy flat - profits from a huge marijuana money-laundering ring with possible ties to organized crime, the Daily News has learned.
It is "by far" the biggest stash ever seized in the city linked to a marijuana ring, city special narcotics prosecutor Bridget Brennan said.
"Marijuana, and particularly Canadian Bud, is clearly big bucks," Brennan said.
Prosecutors believe the cash - packaged in shrink-wrap and heat-sealed - is profit from a large-scale hydroponic pot operation.
The ongoing probe of the suspected money ring at 153 Mulberry St., an apartment adjacent to the Italian American Museum, has been dubbed "Here we go round the Mulberry bush" by investigators.
Last month, detectives from Brennan's office and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Daniel McGehean, the apartment's 32-year-old tenant, and Canadian national Richard Doyon, 37.
Investigators also seized a photo of McGehean standing in a marijuana field and drug records from the well-appointed flat.
McGehean and Doyon are set to be arraigned today in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Two other suspected members of the ring, Dehran Duckworth, a drummer in the band Narhed, and real estate agent Richard Burke, were busted last month with a duffel bag holding 5pounds of pot in Burke's BMW, which was parked near Stuyvesant Town, authorities said.
Some of the $1.1 million was headed to California, where itwas to fund a Mexican cocainebuy, prosecutors said. The rest was to be shipped north to Canada.
Dealers packaged the cash in shrink-wrap to hide the odor of pot and chemicals that are used to process the drugs, according to court papers.
Officials also are investigating whether the mob gets a cut of the lucrative business, prosecutors said. The Mulberry St. apartment is located within the Bonanno crime family's turf.
McGehean and Doyon are charged with illegal money transmitting, Brennan said. Duckworth and Burke are charged with criminal sale and possession of marijuana.
Duckworth's and Doyon's lawyers declined to comment. McGehean's and Burke's lawyers did not return calls.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/02/08/2010-02-08_1m_cash_stash_weeded.html#ixzz0eyBacxbP