Last verified: April 2026
Who Is Sheriff Anthony Miranda
Sheriff Anthony Miranda, appointed by Mayor Eric Adams in May 2022 and a former NYPD sergeant, has been the operation’s public face — and its lightning rod. Miranda came to the Sheriff’s Office with a long NYPD career and a record of community-policing work; his elevation to Sheriff coincided with Adams’s decision to make unlicensed-cannabis enforcement a centerpiece of his quality-of-life agenda.
The Department of Investigation Raid
On September 26, 2024, the Department of Investigation raided Sheriff Miranda’s own office over allegations of mishandled seized cash. The raid, reported by THE CITY, Business Insider, and other outlets, signaled an escalating internal accountability crisis around Operation Padlock’s evidence and proceeds-handling practices.
The Deputy Sheriffs’ Association Complaints
Ingrid Simonovic, president of the NYC Deputy Sheriffs’ Association and the only female head of any uniformed city union, filed at least 13 complaints against Sheriff Miranda between 2022 and 2024, alleging:
- Discrimination
- Retaliation
- Hostile work environment
- Mismanagement
The city Office of Collective Bargaining ruled in March 2024 that her own transfer was retaliatory. The pattern of internal complaints documented serious concerns about how Operation Padlock was being conducted on the ground.
Operational Concerns
Reporting by THE CITY and Business Insider documented:
- Deputies coughing up blood from improperly stored seized cannabis — raising questions about evidence-handling protocols
- Deputies quitting in droves — an internal exodus that further compromised operational capacity
- Mishandled seized cash — the underlying allegation that drove the September 2024 DOI raid
The Federal Lawsuits
Three federal lawsuits against Miranda by raided shop operators were pending in early 2026, represented by:
- Attorney Nadia Kahnauth — representing more than 100 store owners
- Attorney Lance Lazzaro — representing additional operators
The federal lawsuits allege civil-rights violations, due-process violations, and various torts arising from Operation Padlock raids and seizures. The cases proceed in parallel with the Kerrigan ruling on appeal.
The Kerrigan Ruling
On October 29, 2024, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kevin J. Kerrigan ruled in Cloud Corner / A S A 456 Corp. that Operation Padlock violated due process — finding that Miranda’s authority to override the city’s own administrative tribunal (the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, or OATH) gave the sheriff effective veto power over neutral fact-finding. Kerrigan called Miranda’s enforcement “capricious and arbitrary.” The city appealed; the appellate decision was still pending in early 2026.
Separately, in Moon Rocket Inc. et al v. City of New York, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sided with the city. The dueling rulings — state-court loss for the city in Cloud Corner, federal-court win in Moon Rocket — create the unsettled legal landscape that Operation Padlock now operates within. See Kerrigan Ruling.
The Mamdani Inheritance
Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office January 2026, inheriting Operation Padlock from Adams. Mamdani has not, as of April 2026, signaled major changes to the operation; his administration has instead emphasized retail expansion as the longer-term fix to the unlicensed-shop problem. Sheriff Miranda was Adams’s appointee; the new mayor’s decisions about Sheriff personnel will shape Operation Padlock’s trajectory through 2026 and beyond.
The Adams Federal Indictment Context
Mayor Adams’s federal corruption indictment in September 2024 (later dismissed by Judge Dale Ho with prejudice in April 2025 after the DOJ ordered the case dropped in February 2025) shadowed but did not derail Operation Padlock. The dismissal-with-prejudice removed the immediate criminal-jurisdiction overlay but left the political environment around Adams-era cannabis enforcement deeply contested. Mayor Mamdani inherited an operation that had been politically defined by an indicted predecessor.
What to Watch
- Appellate decision in Cloud Corner — a second-department reversal of Kerrigan would significantly recalibrate enforcement
- Disposition of the three pending federal lawsuits
- DOI investigation outcome — the September 2024 raid’s findings and any disciplinary or criminal consequences
- Mamdani decisions on Sheriff personnel
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