The city’s sheriff’s office in Queens was searched Thursday morning by the Department of Investigation as part of a probe into Sheriff Anthony Miranda and his office’s handling of cash seizures from illegal pot shops, sources told The Post.
The DOI descended on the sheriff office’s Long Island City headquarters after Miranda on Wednesday found an estimated tens of thousands of dollars in cash inside a safe in the building, sources said.
Miranda reported the safe to DOI, according to sources, and investigators from the agency also located a ledger book with pages ripped out alongside the dough.
Investigators are counting the money and taking pictures of the ledger, one source said, adding there was no record of the origins of the cash.
The DOI has been looking into whether the sheriff’s office, under Miranda’s leadership, improperly seized cash from unlicensed pot shops during crackdowns on the illegal businesses in recent months.
Miranda has been in “panic mode,” according to sources, since he told City Council members at a hearing last week he did not believe sheriff’s deputies had seized any money during the raids.