Andrea Sanderlin: Suburban Mother Of 2 Busted for Running Multi-Million Dollar Weed Operation
In what has been dubbed the Westchester County version of "Weeds," a divorced mom living in the upscale neighborhood of Scarsdale, News York, and driving a 2010 Mercedes SUV has been arrested for allegedly running a multi-million dollar pot growing operation from a Queens warehouse.
The active equestrian and mother of 2 daughters is will be charged with conspiring to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute for the 3,000 or more marijuana plants found at the warehouse. Andrea Sanderlin, or "Andi" as her associates called her, ran her operation through a front business called "Fantastic Enterprises." These reports were confirmed by a Con Edison report saying that the warehouse had run up extremely high electricity bills, up to $9,000 a month, which had been paid for in cash.
Police were tipped off to Andi's operation thanks to a confidential witness. One of five men arrested by the DEA for growing pot in New York City warehouses told authorities about Fantastic Enterprises. Authorities arrested Sanderlin on May 29 after authorities seized 3,000 pot plants, "large quantities of dried marijuana," and "lighting, irrigation and ventilation systems," used in what the DEA is calling a "sophisticated operation to grow and process marijuana." Police and DEA agents also seized $14,000 in cash from Sanderlin's Scarsdale home.
Sanderlin's attorney, Joel Winograd answered media inquiries by saying, "You've got a woman, Scarsdale, equestrian, marijuana — one is inconsistent with the other." While that is true, hiring an attorney whose past clients include members of the Gambino crime family and designer-turned-scammer Steve Madden does play into the drug supplier imagine.
As the New York Daily News notes, unlike her fictional Weeds counterpart, "Sanderlin will need more than a script writer to get her out of this jam."
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