Hundreds of bees mysteriously turned red… five years later cops had a body on their
An odd piece of New York City history has resurfaced and is making its way around TikTok – it deals with maraschino cherries, drugs, and a dramatic suicide.
Beekeeping became legal in the Big Apple in March 2010 and enthusiastic Red Hook, Brooklyn, beekeepers quickly took to their pastimes, but they started noticing their little creatures were coming back with weird stripes and their honey was a bright red.
They began to speculate what could be causing the mystery from MTA service depots to a sweet-tasting but sometimes fatal substance called ethylene glycol, according to a 2018 New Yorker report.
While they were at a loss over what was ultimately causing the abnormal color, one person began to suspect it might have to do with Dell’s Maraschino Cherry Company in the same neighborhood.
‘I didn’t want to believe it. Why would they go to the cherry factory?’ Cerise Mayo, who harvested bees in Red Hook and on Governor’s Island, told The New York Times in 2010.
A sample was sent to an apiculturist in Albany, who found Red Dye 40 in it. It’s the same dye used in maraschino cherry juice.
People wondered if Arthur Mondella’s company was illegally dumping waste, but that mystery would go unsolved for many years.
Instead, the New York University graduate hired Andrew Coté – a famous beekeeper in the city – to help him.
Arthur Mondella (second left) killed himself in 2015 after his maraschino cherry factory was raided and his marijuana farm was discovery
‘I showed him how to put some screens up, make the lids of his bins tighter, control the spills. It was not a difficult adjustment at all, and we solved the problem,’ Coté told The New Yorker.
‘Afterward, I sent him an invoice for my services, he paid it, and that was that. Throughout the whole thing he was a gentleman.’
While all this was brewing, there were also rumors as far back as 2009 that Mondella was running a marijuana farm as former workers and nearby residents could smell the familiar stench.
Weed became legal in New York medicinally in 2016 and recreationally in 2021, but despite the illegal nature of Mondella’s operations, his workers kept their mouths shut as he was a good boss who paid well and even helped some with child support and other financial burdens and partied with them.
A postal worker had even reported that the plant was being grown on the property, but authorities did not find anything suspicious and eventually the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office forgot about the case, The New Yorker reported.
In 2013, when newly elected DA Kenneth Thompson came into power, the DA’s Office began looking at stalled environmental cases.
Then, on February 24, 2015, the Dell’s factory was raided during working hours by the Department of Environmental Protection, the NYPD, and the DA’s Office. The warrant allowed them to search for evidence of illegal wastewater dumping, The New Yorker reported.
His factory was first looked into after speculation that it was illegally dumping waste came about in 2010 when Red Hook, Brooklyn beekeepers’ honey was coming back red
After Mondella hired a famous beekeeper to help him secure his waste more, the bees honey turned back to the right color and taste. However, a marijuana farm allegation had been lodged against the factory (pictured), but the DA’s Office quickly passed over it
During the raid, authorities found what they believed was a false wall and told Mondella that they were requesting an additional warrant to look behind it after smelling marijuana.
This is when Mondella excused himself to use the restroom. He would go on to lock himself inside and refuse to come out, only telling police to call his sister Joanne.
After she arrived, he told her: ‘Take care of my kids.’
The 57-year-old then took the gun strapped to his ankle and shot himself in the head.
Investigators eventually got the warrant to search behind the wall in the garage. They had to go around cars, closet doors, and button-controlled shelves, and even down a ladder into a hole in the floor.
Down below, they found the largest indoor marijuana growing operation in the city at 2,500-square-feet, as well as thousands in cash, several luxury cars, sophisticated grow lamps and irrigation equipment, a copy of The World Encyclopedia of Organized Crime and around 100 marijuana plants.
As to why the wealthy man – who used to work for Merrill Lynch before taking over his father’s business – was dealing in the illegal drug trade, investigators still don’t know.
The factory was raided in 2015 – two years after a new DA came in and started looking at stalled environmental allegation. Why executing a search warrant for illegal waste dumping, Mondella shot himself in the head after authorities discovered a false wall and smell weed
And what made the older man revert to suicide isn’t answered either. At worse, he would have spent a few years in jail for the crime, but more than likely would have received probation.
Dell’s was charged with a felony count of criminal possession of marijuana and a misdemeanor for wastewater dumping. They pleaded guilty and paid a $1.2million fine, according to The New Yorker.
The company didn’t lose much business after the scandal and Mondella left enough money in his will to cover the fine, the outlet said.
And after that one odd summer of red, metallic-tasting honey, it never happened again.