| Graphic: Ronzio Pizza |
| It’s the perfect business plan, really. Create surefire repeat customers by delivering pot with the pizza! |
One pepperoni pizza for pick-up; extra pot, please.
The owner of Ronzio Pizza, a few doors down from the police station in Newport, Rhode Island, was arrested Thursday and charged with possession of marijuana with — you got it — intent to deliver.
After receiving reports from neighbors who live near the pizza parlor that marijuana was being sold there for the past several months, the Newport Police Department started a brave investigation spearheaded by Detective Seth Godek and Detective Mark Matoes, reports Bryan Rourke at The Providence Journal.
The two fearless detectives made several marijuana purchases from Ronzio Pizza over the past month, according to Sgt. Anthony J. Chauvin (was there ever a better cop name?).
“The marijuana would be paid for and placed in a pizza box along with the pizza,” Chauvin said.
The police tossed the pizza parlor on Wednesday, Sgt. Chauvin said, and found four ounces of marijuana in the basement. Chauvin claimed the pot had a street value of $1,000. Arrested was owner Manuel J. Pereira, 38, of East Providence.
Cops confiscated what they claimed was $1,266 in cash, a security system and monitor and a 2003 Mazda.
Pereira is to be arraigned in District Court in Newport on Friday. The matter is still under investigation.
According to the Ronzio Pizza website (it’s a chain), Rhode Island Monthly says they make the best pizza in R.I.
This isn’t the first pizza shop charged for delivering cannabis, and it won’t be the last. Back in the mid-1990s when I was editor of a small-town newspaper in Fulton, Mississippi, a local pizza parlor got raided for the exact same thing — delivering primo pot along with the pies. Sadly, though a loyal customer (their pizza rocked), I never knew of this extra service they offered before the bust came down.
| Photo: Ronzio Pizza |
| Want!!! |
