Photo credit: DEA/Department of Justice | Scarsdale mom Andrea Sanderlin allegedly used this warehouse in Queens to set up a high-tech marijuana grow house, where she had thousands of pot plants growing under state of the art lighting, federal authorities said Tuesday. (June 4, 2013)
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A Scarsdale mom led a double life as a major marijuana merchant, growing thousands of pot plants with state-of-the-art equipment in a Queens industrial warehouse, federal authorities said Tuesday.
Andrea Sanderlin, 45, was arrested May 20, when federal agents -- who had been watching the Scarsdale mom for some time -- stopped her car, brought her to the Queens warehouse and asked her for permission to search the building.
Sanderlin told them no, but agents secured a warrant and searched the warehouse, finding some 1,000 plants growing under artificial sunlight provided by pricey high-tech lamps and nourished by an indoor irrigation system, authorities said. Agents found as many as 2,000 other plants that had been harvested or were being dried for distribution.
Federal agents, who had been watching Sanderlin commuting back and forth between Scarsdale and her Queens warehouse in her Mercedes SUV, were tipped off by a confidential informant. That man, who was charged in a possibly related case, told agents that Sanderlin was running the grow house and where to find it, according to a criminal complaint released Tuesday.
Investigators knew they were onto something when they quietly inquired with Con Edison and found that Sanderlin's warehouse -- operating since 2009 under the name Fantastic Enterprises -- was using "an unusually high amount of electricity," as much as $9,000 per month recently, the complaint said. Another red flag: Sanderlin paid her electricity bills in cash, authorities said.
While conducting surveillance on the warehouse, agents said they watched Sanderlin drive three different vehicles -- including the Mercedes, a black Jeep Liberty and a white Chevy van -- to and from the 57th Drive location. On May 14, the complaint says, Sanderlin arrived at the warehouse, and "a short time later, a white male exited that location carrying a backpack and took a bus to the subway." The next day, agents followed Sanderlin as she stopped at the warehouse and a bank, then returned home.
A more detailed document obtained by the website The Smoking Gun includes more information from the informant, who also told investigators that Sanderlin kept seeds, supplies and cash in her Scarsdale home, and made "large cash purchases" from a gardening store in Brooklyn.
The document lists additional addresses in Brooklyn and the Bronx that were registered to Sanderlin in the past. Con Edison records show exorbitant electricity usage for those buildings as well, and federal authorities said in the complaint that they are investigating the possibility that Sanderlin operated multiple grow houses. Sanderlin owed a combined $14,000 in outstanding electricity bills at those locations, documents show. The Con Edison account for the 57th Street warehouse in Queens was opened in 2009.
Sanderlin had listed addresses at the warehouse, a Manhattan residential building, and two locations in Scarsdale. Investigators in their complaint said they believe Sanderlin's current address is 193 Saxon Woods Rd. in Scarsdale. Realty sites estimate the value of the home and property between $1.2 million and $2.4 million.
A message was left Tuesday night with attorney Joel Winograd, who represents Sanderlin. Winograd, who did not return calls from Newsday, insisted on his client's innocence in other published reports. Sanderlin, who was charged with narcotics trafficking, was arraigned and sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she remained Tuesday night without the possibility of posting bail.
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