Investigators smoked out a hydroponic pot farm in Queens while probing a counterfeit credit-card scheme involving a crew of crooked pals, authorities said Thursday.
Cops recovered 41 marijuana plants and two five-gallon containers of pot from the grow house, which had an $8,000 cooling and ventilation system. A loaded .40-caliber Glock and $11,259 in cash was also stashed inside, police said.
The pot was found following a yearlong investigation into a group of 17 friends who made and sold forged credit cards — then used them at department stores and supermarkets.
“Their alleged crimes victimized not just the businesses — costing them thousands of dollars in losses — but the consumers whose personal identification information was used to carry out the scheme,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement.
The pals, who are all 20 to 28-years-old, allegedly purchased stolen credit and debit card account information from black market websites, and encoded the numbers and names on blank cards.
They then hired people to go shopping with the cards at various stores in Queens, Long Island and Rockland County, according to the indictments.
The shops include Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s and Target, as well as Pathmark and Waldbaums supermarkets.
One time, a fake card was used to spend $1,000 at Saks with the help of a store employee. Another time one of the suspects bought Gucci shoes at a Bloomingdales in Garden City, Long Island.
The 17 suspects face a variety of charges, including possession of a forged instrument, grand larceny, petit larceny and unlawful possession of personal identification information.
Two of the suspects have yet to be caught and arrested, Brown said. They could each serve up to seven years behind bars.