An increase in NYC smoke store shootings has put the NYPD on high alert: sources

With a series of shootings in the Big Apple smokehouses, cops are ramping up resources to deal with what has become a “citywide problem,” The Post has learned.

Police at each precinct have now been tasked with compiling a list of smoke shops in their neighborhoods and giving them “special attention,” sources said.

“The problem is you have to keep changing the list because new stores pop up overnight,” a Queens police officer said, adding, “It’s a double win for criminals, they get both cash and marijuana.”

Police haven’t counted how many incidents have occurred at the city’s smokehouses, but a source said robberies happen “every day,” whether it’s the store or shoppers coming in and out.

Authorities estimate that there are more than 100 such stores in Midtown alone, and the number continues to grow.

“When we see an empty shop window, we guess how soon the smokehouse will open,” a Manhattan police officer quipped.

One of the suspects in the Hubble Bubble smoke shop case.
One of the suspects in the Hubble Bubble smoke shop case.

Another suspect in the Hubble Bubble smoke shop case.
Another suspect in the Hubble Bubble smoke shop case.

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The man was beaten, robbed and shot dead at a tobacco shop on Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue late Friday night in the latest attack, police said.

Two men entered the 477 News & Tobacco store at 477 Myrtle Avenue, near Washington Avenue in Clinton Hill, just before 11:30 p.m. and shot the victim in the head during the confrontation, police said. The 48-year-old man was taken to Methodist Hospital in a stable condition, authorities said. According to police, the thieves took $4,600 with them.

On Saturday, a police officer was at a store that sells cigarettes, cigars and lottery tickets, as well as vapes, hand-rolled cigarettes and smoking paraphernalia such as bowls and pipes.

On Monday, the NYPD released a video of two gunmen threatening Brooklyn tobacco shop workers with a hammer and hitting one of them before grabbing hundreds of dollars in cash and CBD products.

The couple entered the Hubble Bubble smokehouse on Avenue P near East Fourth Street in Midwood just after 11 a.m. on Feb. 2, police said. The duo got away with about $150 in cash and about $800 worth of CBD products, police said.


smoke shop
Police at each precinct are instructed to draw up a list of smoke shops in those areas and give them “special attention,” sources said.
UCG/Universal Images Group via G

About a month earlier, on Jan. 4, a smokehouse worker on the Lower East Side was shot and killed in a possible robbery attempt, police said. According to the NYPD, three armed suspects entered the Exotic Convenience at 79 Clinton Street around 6:40 p.m. when one of the men opened fire, injuring an employee in the lower back. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in a stable condition, authorities said.

On Dec. 3, armed robbers stole $10,000 from a tobacco shop in Queens, according to police. And a few months earlier, on September 25, a Manhattan smokehouse employee was shot dead when he was confronted by three robbers outside his store, authorities said.

The 35-year-old worker was at the Orchard Smoke Shop on Orchard Street near East Houston Street on the Lower East Side just after 10:30 p.m. when the trio stole goods worth about $12,000 and about $300, police said. in cash.

When the bandits left, the worker went outside and ran into them, police said. According to police, during the clash, one of the suspects shot the worker in the torso and arm. The victim survived.


Smoke shop theft
The source said it appears that robberies happen “every day” in New York City smokehouses.
DCPI

On August 8, the Good Samaritan tried to intervene when four robbers attacked a friend’s Upper West Side store and were wounded in the leg, police said.

And on April 15, two scammers pointed a gun at Zaza Exotics smokers in Brooklyn and escaped with $1,000 in cash and $4,800 worth of CBD liquid, police said.

While each site solves its problems with smokehouses.

“Customers can’t buy marijuana on credit, so it’s a cash business,” a Brooklyn source said.

Another Manhattan cop added, “Now we have crime cops visiting the smokehouse, but if they don’t report a crime, they don’t want to talk to the police.”

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