Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Owner Commits Suicide When Secret Grow Discovered

Arthur Mondella at the Maraschino cherry factory.

Tragedy has struck Dell’s Maraschino Cherries in a recent Brooklyn police raid, when owner Arthur Mondella, shot and killed himself in a suicide when police discovered his cannabis grow operation.

Dell’s Maraschino Cherries is a family business founded in 1948 and one of the largest processors of maraschino cherries in the nation — if you’ve eaten a sundae with a cherry on top of it in the U.S. in the past several decades, odds are you’ve had a cherry from their factory.

Apparently the factory was also harboring other goods. In a story that sounds like it could be the next ABC hit, authorities discovered that the cherry factory doubled as a discrete weed growing operation.

In a raid involving twenty five police officers from the Brooklyn District Attorney‘s office and the Department of Environmental Protection, authorities discovered 80 pounds of cannabis behind a secret wall in the factory. Among other items discovered on the property were hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash (presumably drug money) and several luxury cars including a Rolls-Royce, a Porsche and Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The grow operation was not initially the cause of investigation. A team of city and state environmental regulators, as well as prosecutors from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, had been investigating the factory for several hours after receiving a complaint of illegal chemical dumping in the waters off Red Hook.

According to police, Mondella initially cooperated with police but became increasingly vague when they discovered “flimsy shelving and a faint smell of marijuana.” Then when an investigator told Mondella, “Well we’re going to get a warrant to get behind this wall,” Mondella asked to be excused to his private bathroom where he allegedly shot himself with a .357 magnum.

Before the gunshot, Mondella yelled out to his sister, who had been waiting outside the bathroom, in a solemn final request, “Take care of my kids.” Mondella apparently later died in a nearby hospital. In a statement from  the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Mondella “excused himself to his private bathroom where he apparently shot himself and died at a local hospital.”

While I cannot approve of such a large scale hidden business, and certainly not illegal chemical dumps that hurt the environment – I can’t help but feel like this man’s life could have been saved if we didn’t have such a repressive culture that stigmatizes cannabis. Would the man have ended his life if legal punishments weren’t so severe for growing a harmless plant?

The investigation into environmental crimes is currently still active, although it is unclear who will face any criminal charges that are put forth with the recent death of the company’s owner.