ELMHURST — Six men were busted with approximately 3,000 pounds of pot stacked nearly 6-feet high inside a tractor-trailer parked on Ireland Street early Monday, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.
Drug enforcement officers out patrolling the area early on Oct. 5 saw the suspects unloading boxes from a large tractor-trailer into two smaller vans at 50-22 Ireland St., prosecutors said.
They became overwhelmed by a strong whiff of pot — and discovered an estimated 3,000 pounds of marijuana, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, officials said.
Special Agent James J. Hunt from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division said the arrests show "law enforcement agents and officers possess the keen ability to spot the things that don’t belong."
Marijuana seized from a large tractor trailer in Elmhurst on Oct. 5, 2015. (DEA)
Defendants Weiyang Yao, 47, of Cucamonga, California, Yuejiang Zeng, 53, of San Gabriel, California; Shan Wu Zhang, 30, of British Columbia, Canada, and Duanzhao Zhang, 38, Tong Shun Zhang, 29, and Tong Zhew Zhang, 24, of Brooklyn, are due in court Tuesday.
They face up to five and a half years in prison if convicted, the DA said.
Information on their lawyers was not immediately available.
