A cherry factory baron in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood is using his family-run business to crank out weed instead of Maraschino cherries for the mob. Caught red-handed by the cops, the baron decides to shoot himself rather than face the fury of the mob.

This story has all the ingredients of being the perfect Hollywood potboiler - only that it is not fiction, but the true tale of 57-year-old Arthur Mondella.

Mondella was the owner of the 67-year-old family-run business - Dell's Maraschino Cherries in Brooklyn, New York. The cherry factory, however, had a nasty secret tucked away inside its red-bricked walls. It churned out marijuana.

On Tuesday, Feb. 24, the police raided the factory on an unconnected matter of environmental violations - apparently the dumping of cherry juice and chemical byproducts into the sewer - only to discover the massive marijuana operation.

It is not clear whether the cops were alerted of the presence of marijuana in the factory by a faint odor or if they were tipped off that the warehouse was a haven for clandestine drug production.

Sensing his secret garden was going to be discovered and his game was up, Mondella headed to the restroom and shot himself. The cops found marijuana not only being grown, but also sold from the basement cellar. The cellar was hidden behind a false wall and shelves at the cherry plant.

Behind the fake wall, the police discovered nearly 100 pounds of marijuana and a stash of cash - hundreds of thousands of dollars. The investigators also found several luxury vehicles such as a Porsche, Rolls-Royce and a Harley-Davidson bike.

The investigators are probing into the matter and exploring the possibility of an organized crime and Mondella's likely links with the mob. The detectives opine that Mondella feared the mob would murder him and, therefore, out of fear committed suicide instead.

"That's why he shot himself. He knew the mob would kill him," revealed a law enforcement source to the NY Post. "Why else would you shoot yourself over 100 pounds of weed? It was the multi-million operation he lost."

The security cameras, barbed wire surrounding the premises, generators, and motion-detecting lights discovered by investigators at the Brooklyn factory are strong indicators that an underground drug operation was in progress at the cherry factory. Whether Mondella was the kingpin or merely a pawn; however, remains to be seen.

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