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Two Queens Women Busted for Converting House into Pot Farm, DA Says

By Gwynne Hogan | July 2, 2015 8:24pm
 Roomates Larraysha Conklin, 28, and Julene Mercano, 50, were arrested on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Roomates Larraysha Conklin, 28, and Julene Mercano, 50, were arrested on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
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Flickr Creative Commons/Alexodus

QUEENS — They're in the weeds.

Two Cambria Heights women were busted for converting the second floor of their home into a verdant pot farm and stealing more than $64,000 worth of electricity from Con Edison in the process, prosecutors said Thursday.

Roomies Larraysha Conklin, 28, and Julene Mercano, 50, were arrested inside their 117-17 219th St. home on Wednesday morning and were awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court as of Thursday afternoon, prosecutors said.

The pair face up to fifteen years in prison if convicted of charges of second-degree grand larceny, first-degree criminal possession of marijuana and theft of service, prosecutors said.

Investigators entered the women’s home at about 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday with a search warrant, prosecutors said.

On the second level of the house, police found about forty five-foot tall pot plants, 1000-watt lights, power fans, air-conditioning units, dehumidifiers and carbon dioxide generators, prosecutors said.

Con Edison told prosecutors that between May 31, 2013, through July 1, 2015, the house owed $64,792 for electricity it wasn’t billed for.

No information about the lawyers for either woman was immediately available.