“Cherry King” Arthur Mondella was likely making millions of dollars from his secret pot-growing farm, according to an expert in the city’s illicit ganja trade — former pot farmer and ex-Gambino gangster John Alite.
Cops say Mondella grew at least 100 plants at a time in the basement of the Dell’s Maraschino Cherries factory in Red Hook — which could have earned him $10 million a year, according to Alite.
Alite said he grew his own “wacky tobacky” in three- month cycles, with about 100 4-foot plants yielding approximately three pounds of weed each. The pot was sold for a minimum of $3,000 a pound, he said.
“So that’s $1.2 million every three months,” he said. “If it’s higher quality we sold it for $6,500 a pound. So now you’re at about $2.5 million every three months.”
Mondella’s operation, Alite told The Post, was truly a growth business.
“You’re anywhere from $5 to $10 million a year in profit, if it’s higher quality like we had,” Alite said.
The Gambinos had for years been trucking in 10,000 pounds of pot at a time from Mexico. But in the mid-’90s, they started farming their own — first in a basement in Woodhaven, Queens, and later on an 18-acre property upstate, according to Alite.
“It made us millions of dollars a year, without a doubt,” said Alite, who now consults on crime for TV and movies at http://www.johnalite.com.
Mondella, 57, fatally shot himself in the head in a bathroom of his factory on Tuesday as investigators opened a secret door leading to his huge, 50-by-50-foot basement grow house.
His funeral was Saturday at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary-St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Carroll Gardens.
Loudspeakers played Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as his casket was carried from the church. He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery.