Pictured: The New York suburban mom accused of running $3MILLION marijuana business as she is released on bail

Andrea Sanderlin, 45, has been accused of running a marijuana business out of a warehouse in Queens



Four friends put up the $500,000 bond to release her Monday

A judge has ordered her to provide the signatures of her mother and other relatives if she wants to remain free on bail



She lives with her daughters, ages 3 and 13, in lavish Scarsdale, NY, home

Sanderlin could face a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted of felony narcotics trafficking

[headerlinks

A suburban mother charged with growing thousands of marijuana plants worth millions of dollars was freed on $500,000 bond on Monday despite a federal magistrate judge's misgivings about her finances and about the friends who stepped up to co-sign for her.

Authorities say that since Andrea Sanderlin's arrest she has refused to answer questions about how she bankrolled an upscale lifestyle in Westchester County, just north of New York City, before she was arrested and jailed in May.

The case immediately drew comparisons to the recent Showtime series 'Weeds,' about the exploits of a California woman who supported her family by dealing pot.

Released: Four friends put up the $500,000 bond to release Andrea Sanderlin, the New York mom accused of running a $3million marijuana business, from jail

'For all I know, she has millions of dollars or she could have a couple hundred dollars,' Judge Steven M. Gold said at the bail hearing in federal court in Brooklyn. 'She hasn't worked, but she's living in Scarsdale and driving a Mercedes. I can't add that up.'

The judge also complained to Sanderlin's attorney that four friends who co-signed her bond, including a hair stylist and a hair colorist who said they last saw her at a party six months ago, 'don't have a heck of a lot of moral impact on your client.'

He told the lawyer he would have to get the signatures of her mother and other relatives by Wednesday if she wants to stay free.

Sanderlin, 45, left the courthouse without speaking to reporters.

Not so fast: A questioning judge has ordered Sanderlin to provide the signatures of her mom and other relatives if she wants to remain free on bail



She first came under suspicion after U.S. Drug Enforcement agents found that a Consolidated Edison utility account linked to her was being used to power lighting, irrigation and ventilation at a Queens warehouse, court papers said.

The operation was listed under the name Fantastic Enterprises.

The agents tailed the mother of three driving from Scarsdale to Queens and back and stopped her May 20, the complaint said.

After getting a warrant, they searched the warehouse and found more than 2,800 pot plants and large amounts of dried marijuana, officials said.

The plants were worth an estimated $3 million on the street.

The take: Police found almost 3,000 marijuana plants in the warehouse operated by Andrea Sanderlin under the guise of 'Fantastic Enterprises Inc'

Under the radar: A neighbor reported smelling marijuana as far back as December, but figured it was just local kids smoking

Sanderlin pleaded not guilty last week to charges of manufacturing and possessing marijuana with intent to distribute and maintaining a drug-involved premise.



She's expected to live at the Manhattan apartment of the grandmother of one of her children while out on bond.

If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison, though the term could be shorter under federal sentencing guidelines.

During her indictment on June 16, Sanderlin was compared to a Colombian cocaine lord.

‘Whether you're a suburban mom growing marijuana in a warehouse in Queens or a cartel member making cocaine in the jungles of Colombia, manufacturing and distributing illegal narcotics comes at a hefty price,’ said James Hayes Jr., a Homeland Security agent, in a release announcing the indictment.

U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said Sanderlin ‘chose to inhabit the shadowy underworld of large-scale drug dealers, using drug proceeds to maintain her family's facade of upper middle class stability.’

Fictional alter-ego: Sanderlin's story brings to mind the plot of the Showtime series Weeds, which followed California widow Nancy Botwin, played by Mary-Louise Parker, who became a marijuana grower to support her family

Following her arrest, New York City tabloids compared her lifestyle - living in a Spanish-style mansion, driving a Mercedes SUV, horseback riding in equestrian gear - to the plot of ‘Weeds,’ a television series about a suburban mom from California who becomes a pot dealer to support her family.

‘Sanderlin could have focused her talents on building a legitimate business enterprise to support her family and serve as a role model for her children,’ Lynch said in the statement.

After being tipped off by an informant, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration followed Sanderlin's Mercedes from Scarsdale to Queens and found nearly 3,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $3million, as well as dried pot and paraphernalia.

Sanderlin is accused of operating the facility which had state-of-the-art lighting, irrigation, electrical and ventilation systems and cost more than $9,000 a month to run.

It was the warehouse's unusually high electric bill that raised suspicions about Sanderlin’s line of work, officials said.

The criminal complaint against Sanderlin was filed May 20 by Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent David Lee. It was first reported earlier this month by The Smoking Gun website.

Lee says law enforcement agents entered Sanderlin's Queens warehouse using a search warrant to find two rooms designed to grow marijuana. He says each room had state-of-the-art lighting, irrigation and ventilation systems.

When DEA officials busted the 45-year-old Virginia native outside the warehouse, they seized the marijuana plants, as well as 'large quantities of dried marijuana,' along with special lighting, hydroponic watering system and ventilation equipment.

Sanderlin lives with her two daughters, ages 3 and 13 in a well-appointed home on Saxon Woods Road in Scarsdale, New York.



Business was good: The lux Spanish-style manse that Sanderlin lives in with her two daughters, 3 and 13

The woman's lawyer, Joel Winograd, descried his client as a 'full-time mother' who had never run afoul of the law before.

Sanderlin's name first appeared on the radar of federal agents in April when they arrested five men suspected of running a marijuana-growing outfit from two New York City warehouses.

That business was allegedly headed by 50-year-old Stephen Haberstroh, a Scarsdale resident and Sanderlin's longtime friend.

During the investigation, one member of the pot-growing business told federal officials that Sanderlin, whom he referred to as 'Andi,' operated 'at last one marijuana grow house in Brooklyn or Queens,' according to a criminal complaint.

DEA agents quickly linked Sanderlin to several industrial properties, which racked up unusually high charges for electricity, suggesting that the spaces were used as grow houses.

After staking Sanderlin out for several days, on May 20 DEA agents moved in to arrest her as she approached the warehouse in her gray 2010 Mercedes-Benz SUV. Sanderlin refused to allow the officers to enter the property, but they came prepared with search warrants on hand.

Upon entering the property, agents discovered over 1,000 pot plants housed in two rooms, as well as nearly 2,000 other plants that had been prepared for distribution.

Queens Neighbor Noria Solis said she had been smelling pot in the area since December, but assumed that the odor came from local teens smoking marijuana.

Although it remains unknown how long the mother of three has been growing marijuana, she has been leaving posts on message boards like cannabis.com about hydroponic growing techniques since 2008 under the user name andi68.

'Pot princess': Sanderlin had recently taken up horse-riding

According to the criminal complaint, Sanderlin had several addresses in New York registered to her name, including 420 Tiffany Street in The Bronx, where she had allegedly operated another grow house.

Inside Sanderlin's sprawling four-bedroom Scarsdale home worth between $1.2 and $2.4million, DEA officials said they found $6,000 in cash and books on money-laundering and growing marijuana.

They also seized $7,900 from the woman's nanny, who allegedly attempted to carry out the cash inside a brown leather bag to Sanderlin's boyfriend, who has been identified as Victor Garcia.

Sanderlin also has a 27-year-old son from her first marriage at age 16. He lives in Brooklyn, and according to the New York Post , he has been arrested twice for marijuana possession.

Sanderlin had recently began taking part in horseback-riding competitions and took lessons with her teenage daughter at Twin Lakes Farm, a riding academy and competitive show stable in Bronxville, according to owner Scott Tarter.

Tarter described Sanderlin to CNN as a ‘beginner adult rider’ who joined the academy in January after buying a big black Friesian horse. Tarter described the 45-year-old woman as a normal, caring, local mother who boarded her horse at his stables.

Tarter said he was led to believe Sanderlin was in the interior design business.

‘She was just like all the local moms here,’ he said. ‘She wasn't loud. I never saw her smoking or drinking or anything that would have made me believe this.’

In March, Sanderlin won several ribbons in a local equestrian contest, but sold her horse for more than $9,000 last month and was on the market for a new jumping horse.

In an interview with The Post, Jenji Khan, the creator of the series Weeds, which ran for eight seasons on Showtime, called Sanderlin's arrest 'a bummer' and joked that 'it's tough being a stay-at-home mom.'