Today is Monday, February 24th, 2020.

On this day in 2015, authorities rated

Del's Maricino Cherry's Factory in Brooklyn, New York. authorities raided found instead was a hidden drug empire. Welcome to today in True Crime, a parcast original.

Due to the graphic nature of today's crimes,

listener discretion is advised.

Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. Today we're covering the raid on

Arthur Mandela's Maricino Cherry Factory in Red Hook Brooklyn, The unexpected discovery of a massive growing operation shocked

Mandela's family and ultimately resulted in tragedy.

Let's go back to the Dell Cherry factory on Dyckman Street

on February 24, 2015, a few hours into the work day.

It started with the bees.

It started with the bees.

In 2010, the bees.

In 2010, the bees of Red Hook turned an alarming shade of red, staining their hives and rendering their determined that their buzzing charges must be getting sloshed at the local

Marachino Cherry factory, somehow able to drink their weight in cardinal corn syrup

instead of natural nectar.

Now, this wouldn't have been such an issue.

The red honey was actually kind of pretty,

a bit of a novelty, but it tasted terrible, sickly sweet with a metallic undertone.

After losing an entire honey crop to the red menace, the beekeepers called upon the Cherry Man to take action.

Arthur Mandela, for his part, was receptive to their pleas.

He quickly consulted with the New York City Beekeepers Association for a solution.

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