New York Woman Busted Doing "Weeds" Knockoff

Woman from wealthy NY suburb grew $3M in pot

Jun 05 2013 02:15PM CST

SCARSDALE, N.Y. (AP) — She lived in a big house in a manicured suburb, took riding lessons on her $10,000 horse and drove a Mercedes. But Andrea Sanderlin, authorities say, wasn't like all the other moms in Scarsdale.

According to a federal complaint, she regularly took the Mercedes to a warehouse in Queens where she was raising thousands of marijuana plants worth millions of dollars in the drug trade.

Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration found healthy, leafy plants of all sizes, some stacked on tiered shelves, plus fans, lights and hoses. The complaint called the arrangement "a sophisticated operation to grow and process marijuana."

Scarsdale is a wealthy New York City suburb known for beautiful old homes and top-notch schools.

On Wednesday, the loudest noise around Sanderlin's Mediterranean-style home came from workers pouring cement for an in-ground swimming pool a few houses down.

In the complaint, DEA Special Agent David Lee said an informant tipped agents that a woman from Scarsdale was operating a marijuana grow house in New York City. He identified Sanderlin from a photo, Lee said.

Agents then found that a Con Edison account linked to Sanderlin in Queens was using an "unusually high amount of electricity." The complaint said the power was being poured into lighting, irrigation and ventilation at the warehouse, which was listed under the name Fantastic Enterprises.

Agents tailed Sanderlin driving from Scarsdale to Queens and back and stopped her May 20, the complaint said. After getting a search warrant, they went into the warehouse and found more than 2,800 pot plants and large amounts of dried marijuana, DEA spokeswoman Erin Mulvey said Wednesday. She said the plants were worth $3 million on the street.

Sanderlin, 45, was charged with conspiring to raise and distribute the pot. She pleaded not guilty and was held without bail. Her lawyer, Joel Winograd, did not immediately return messages Wednesday.

If convicted, Sanderlin could be sentenced to 10 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines would likely produce a shorter term.

Neighbors said they believe Sanderlin is unmarried and has two daughters. At Twin Lakes Farm in Eastchester, a horse barn and riding academy a few miles from Scarsdale, owner Scott Tarter said Sanderlin and one daughter had taken lessons there.

Sanderlin, he said, came about three times a week from December to April, sometimes bringing her older daughter, and eventually bought her own horse.

"She was a beginning rider and he was a green horse," Tarter said. "It wasn't a great pairing." He later helped her sell the horse for about $10,000 and was helping her find another when he lost contact with her, around the time of her arrest.

Sanderlin's Facebook page includes video of her daughter riding.

"She was very nice, good with her daughters," Tarter said. "Didn't raise her voice. She was just like all the other moms."  EXCEPT FOR THE POT FARM.

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Drinking On The Job Leads to Arrest

DNA on beer cans leads to NY suspect's arrest

Published - Jun 05 2013 

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a burglar's decision to knock back a couple of beers during a break-in at an upstate New York home led to his arrest.

Onondaga (ahn-uhn-DAH'-gah) County prosecutors tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse (http://bit.ly/14vfeMo ) that 29-year-old Moses Wilson was stealing copper piping from a vacant rental home in Syracuse in early February when he found an unopened case of beer in the basement.

Officials say he drank some of the beer during the burglary. Prosecutors say police were able to match Wilson's DNA to DNA found on the cans.

Wilson was arraigned Tuesday in Onondaga County Court on charges of burglary and petit larceny. He is being held in jail on $10,000 bail. It couldn't immediately be determined if he had a lawyer.

What's Up, Pussycat?

Cat detained on illegal mission at Russian prison

Jun 03 2013 

MOSCOW (AP) — Inmates at Russia's prisons have been known to bribe guards to obtain cellphones, but this may be the first time they have used a cat as an accomplice.
Guards patrolling a prison colony in Russia's north saw a cat on the fence and it seemed to be carrying something. On a closer look, they found a few cellphones and chargers taped to the cat's belly.
The federal prison service said Monday that this happened on Friday at the Penal Colony No. 1 near the city of Syktyvkar in the Komi province, 1,000 kilometers (some 600 miles) northeast of Moscow.
It wasn't clear how the cat was supposed to drop off its loot.

After attempted interrogation the cat was released on its own recognizance, after having a GPS device implanted in its shoulder.  Authorities hope the cat will lead them to the smuggling suspects.

German Language Overkill

Law change eliminates German's longest word

Jun 03 2013 

BERLIN (AP) — A tweak to state laws in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to conform with current EU regulations has caused an unexpected casualty: the longest word in the German language.

The Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz is no more.

The "law delegating beef label monitoring" was introduced by the state in 1999 as part of measures against mad cow disease. But the dpa news agency reported Monday the law was removed from the books last week because European Union regulations have changed.

Long noted for its very long words with dozens of letters,
German still has words like the very robust Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe to fall back on — meaning "widow of a Danube steamboat company captain."

Dpa reports such words have been so rarely used, however, that they're not in the dictionary. There the longest word honor falls to Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung: automobile liability insurance.

Mom Gets 99 Years For Brutalizing Toddler Daughter

A Dallas woman who beat her 2-year-old daughter and glued the toddler's hands to a wall was sentenced Friday to 99 years in prison by a judge who described his decision as a necessary punishment for a brutal, shocking attack. (Oct. 12)

British Badgers Gain Support in London Rally

A rally by extremists from the British National Party and the English Defence League was dwarfed by opposition campaigners staging rival protests in London on Saturday 1 June.

Shortly after lunch, a die-hard core of around 50 BNP and EDL supporters was confronted outside parliament by hundreds of activists from anti-extremist groups including Unite Against Fascism and Hope Not Hate.

But in the event, both groups were upstaged by agitators of a different stripe. Decked out from head to toe in black and white, the group that won the day were campaigning neither for race war nor ethnic equality, but an end to the government's cull of badgers.

And it was the pro-badger campaigners who appeared to steal a march on the political activists.

Young women dressed in fake fur were seen chasing doughty nationalist supporters down London's Whitehall as a large number of security forces in iridescent jackets looked on from police lines.


Led by Queen guitarist Brian May, protesters in fancy dress demanded an end to the government's cull of badgers, brought in to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis.


They chanted: "Smash the cull! Smash the BNP!"

BNP candidate Clifford Le May was left with a bloody nose after being caught up in a rival enclave of human rights activists.

The BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, had earlier backed down on his threat to defy a police ban and march on Woolwich after the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. Rigby's family had issued a statement appealing for calm.

Police invoked powers under the Public Order Act to force demonstrators to move back from Old Palace Yard, demanding activists from all sides return to their pre-arranged areas.

At least 58 anti-extremist campaigners were arrested during the course of the afternoon, most of them for obstructing the path of the BNP and EDL, who had been granted permission to march by the police.
"It's a shame we can't just cull the EDL and let the badgers march. Who wouldn't want to see marching badgers!" said protester Ian Power on Twitter.

Cooling Their Heels: Only in New Yawk

For sale in NYC: Fridge with morbid history

 Jun 01 2013 02:26PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — It's a fridge big enough for a family of four.  In fact it has a separate compartment for each family  member.

New York's Office of General Services has turned to eBay in an attempt to sell a huge, steel morgue refrigerator now located at a Manhattan psychiatric hospital.

Bidding on Saturday afternoon was up to $475 for the four-drawer unit, but that price doesn't include delivery. Buyers have to be willing to remove the fridge themselves from the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.

Office of General Services spokeswoman Heather Groll tells the New York Post (http://bit.ly/11htBpM ) that the ad is no hoax.

She says the agency does get unusual surplus items to sell from time to time, including barber chairs from prisons and police cars, but she doesn't recall a previous sale of a morgue cooler.

The auction runs through June 6.