AG James secures $6M judgment against unlicensed cannabis store in Bay Ridge

February 13, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Cops raid the Big Chief Smoke Shop in Bay Ridge. Photo courtesy of Loudlabs/Inset courtesy of NYPD

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BAY RIDGE — New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a $6 million judgment against the owner of Big Chief Smoke Shop, an unlicensed cannabis store in Bay Ridge.

Big Chief sold cannabis for more than a year without a license and ignored repeated orders by the Office of Cannabis Management and other law enforcement authorities to stop operating without a license. The Office of the Attorney General and OCM obtained a judicial closing order that shut down Big Chief in December 2023.

This judgment requires Big Chief’s owner to pay nearly $5.9 million in penalties for selling cannabis without a license and continuing to do so after being ordered by OCM to stop, $121,000 in disgorgement of illegal profits and $44K in costs and attorney’s fees.

“Rules and regulations, especially over the cannabis industry, are designed to protect New York consumers and keep neighborhoods safe,” said Attorney General James. “Big Chief Smoke Shop ignored repeated warnings to stop operating without a license, and instead, they kept their doors open, putting New Yorkers at risk. My office secured a $6 million judgment against the owners of Big Chief Smoke Shop for brazenly violating the law and disrupting the local community.”

“New Yorkers need and expect a safe, regulated cannabis market where business owners play by the rules,” said State Sen. Andrew Gounardes. “By repeatedly refusing to do the right thing, Big Chief did an immense disservice to our community in Bay Ridge and to all the licensed retailers operating in New York.”

“Of all the unlicensed cannabis operators who worked to undermine the rollout of the legalized cannabis industry in New York, Big Chief was one of the worst bad actors I’ve seen,” said City Councilmember Justin Brannan. “Beyond endangering their customers and our community by selling untaxed, unregulated and illegal products, they were bad neighbors who hosted illegal activity, frequently trashed the area outside their premises and blatantly mocked and provoked residents, elected officials and law enforcement in the press.

“People in Bay Ridge took notice — Big Chief was certainly not the only illegal cannabis store in our neighborhood, but they generated more complaints to my office in the one-plus year they were open than any other single legal or illegal establishment in my district since I took office in 2018,” he said.

New York’s Cannabis Law requires any person who cultivates, processes or sells any cannabis product to be registered and licensed by the New York State Cannabis Control Board. The law imposes a penalty of up to $10,000 for each day an individual sells cannabis without a license and a penalty of up to $20,000 for each day an individual continues to sell cannabis after receiving an order to cease operating from OCM. Additional revenue-based civil penalties may also be imposed based on the amount of unlicensed sales.

Big Chief Smoke Shop had been selling cannabis without a license since at least November 2022. In August 2023, OCM and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) investigators conducted an inspection of Big Chief, confirmed Big Chief was selling cannabis without a license, and seized more than 400 pounds of cannabis and cannabis products.