Lincoln Convenience with neon signing reading “Just CBD.”
The owner of eleven stores selling illegal cannabis – five of which are on the Upper West Side – will have to pay over $400,000 in related fines, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Tuesday.
Rami Alzandani will have to pay $103,000 to the Department of Tax and Finance and another $300,000 in illegally obtained proceeds. These amounts were agreed upon as part of a non-prosecution agreement.
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Four of his stores also pleaded guilty to one count of criminal possession and were subject to additional $5,000 fines.
Alzandani’s stores include the following on the UWS:
- Lincoln Convenience, 2047 Broadway between West 70th and 71st streets (which in August 2022 was robbed twice over the course of three days).
- West Coast Convenience, 176 West 72nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues.
- Jacks Convenience, 2812 Broadway between 108th and 109th streets.
- Ignite Convenience, 214 West 72nd Street between West End and Broadway.
- Amsterdam Varieties Corp, 228 Amsterdam Avenue at West 70th Street.
“Today there are fewer illegal cannabis shops on the Upper West Side thanks to DA Bragg,” said Council Member Gale Brewer. “Two of the stores were selling within half a block of three DOE schools and a public playground.
Alzandani’s stores will be subject to random, unannounced inspections over the next three years. He will also need to submit a written certificate confirming illegal pot is not being sold at his stores every three months.
Alzandani’s illegal cannabis sales were discovered through undercover purchases at all of his stores.
They will continue selling weed. Everyone knows this. NYC doesn’t care. They just want $$$$.
These stores are disgusting. They are destroying our neighborhood. Gale Brewer…… what are you doing about it?? Nothing. As usual.
Council Member Gale Brewer’s comments do NOT logically follow the paragraphs that precede them. Fining these stores and allowing them to stay open is nothing worth thanking D.A. Bragg for. Fining them and closing them, as Ms. Brewer is reported as stating, is infinitely preferable but, based on the article as written by Mike Mishkin, this did NOT occur. So what are we to make of any of it? Inaccurate fact gathering and reporting? Gale Brewer looking for reasons to curry favor with D.A. Bragg for doing almost nothing? If Alzandani’s stores are to be subject to random, undercover inspections and purchases, that suggests the stores are staying open, he’s paying the fines, and it’s business as usual except he’s got to be a little more careful to whom he sells his drugs. So… no different from anyone else out there on the street making his or her living selling drugs and hustling on a daily basis.
I agree. Why are they staying open? because they don’t want more shuttered store fronts on the Upper West Side?
Please Thank’s To DA Bragg, And here he is letting walk this city is no longer safe
And the store on Amsterdam at 80 and all the others hiding in plain sight ?
This was the most obvious thing of all time. Targeted robberies don’t happen by accident. There is another CBD store 3 doors down that does no business. This one has a line out the door around the clock. I guess this is a step in the right direction, but shut this place down. A big contributor to the ongoing uptick in dirt bags and incidents in our family neighborhood.
I walk by there all the time on the way to Fairway but have never seen a line out the door. In fact, I have never seen a line there at all.
I find all this handwringing quite disingenuous! First it appears that there was little to no due diligence done on a successful opening of dispensaries. Having spend a fair amount if time in San Francisco there are many dispensaries and there is very few issues and they are in all neighborhoods, they have a two-step security with the first step being a HUMAN BEING and you cannot enter until your ID is checked and your picture is taken, then you’re buzzed into the establishment. This method cuts down any thoughts of robbery.
Secondly, Gov Hochul wanted the revenue and due to the disorganized and chaotic rollout of licenses, she ALLOWED these “illegal” dispensaries to open with orders to law enforcement to turn a blind eye – that is untl the license process was finally straightened out – then these places were now targeted! This was very disingenuous and unfair, these stores were used for the revenue they generated, while the license situation was worked out. There were many people who had the money and documentation at the ready to purchase licenses but the government WASN’T ready, hence the delay.
Legalized marijuana is really no different than alcohol and there are liquor stores across the street from schools so the pearl clutching about dispensaries is really uncalled for. While this could have and should have been handled much better and definitely needs tweaks and improvements, the issues lie squarely at the governor’s feet not the dispensary operators.
We have NO legal stores in the neighborhood but for some reason Gail Boomer can’t just leave people alone. So glad to not be in her district any more after the redistricting.