Now that’s what you’d call a Magic School Bus.
Queens prosecutors put the brakes on an illegal marijuana operation that was allegedly peddling “Beach Boyz Budz” brand weed out of a multi-colored converted school bus, The Post has learned.
The bus — decked out in Jamaican Rastafarian colors of green, yellow and red and still equipped with the traditional “stop” sign — was doing business in Rockaway Park, just two blocks from nearby schools, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
Rastafari is a Jamaican religion that idolizes former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie and promotes cannabis smoking to achieve nirvana.
Two men — Omar Herrera, 32, and David Reilly, 46 — were charged in the sting after cops said they made undercover buys of more than 2 1/2 pounds of cannabis, 274 joints and nine THC vaporizer “pens” from the eyebrow-raising locale.
The pair allegedly sold the illegal goods under the name “Beach Boyz Budz.”
Investigators said they also seized a one-pound marijuana plant, a 1,000-milligram bottle of cannabis syrup, two jars of cannabis “crumble,” and 49 bags of cannabis gummy candies and cookies, the office said.
“Stores, trucks and other outlets currently selling recreational marijuana are doing so illegally,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement. “What consumers are buying from these sellers is not regulated and most certainly has not been tested by the state.”
The DA noted that “private testing has found that the cannabis products sold through these illegal operations often contain harmful contaminants.”
“And the illegal dealers are undercutting the legal sellers before they are even able to get started, translating into lost tax revenues and lost funding for essential public services,” she added.
A state board issued New York’s first recreational marijuana sales licenses, with those operations due to get up and running as early as this month.
The licenses, which were approved by the Office of Cannabis Management, came some 20 months after the state legalized adult-use weed — and as the streets of New York City are awash with grey market unlicensed marijuana vendors.
“While the city has an obligation to support legal dispensaries, many stores in each borough continue to break the law by selling unregulated products,” city Sheriff Anthony Miranda said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We will continue to work with our partners to take enforcement actions against those who sell this contraband and evade taxes,” Miranda said.
Additional reporting by Tina Moore
