Many bodegas and tobacco shops targeted by raids were ordered to remain closed for a year — even though they weren’t even selling cannabis, according to court hearings, records and industry players.

This absurd decision is the result of a small provision of state law that kicked off Operation Padlock To Protectwhich aims to shut down illegal pot shops – and also granted the town sheriff final call to determine which raided shops can remain open and which must remain closed for up to a year.

Some lawyers for the raided stores call the measure “high-handed” and say it makes Sheriff Anthony Miranda, already mired in scandals and investigationsan unelected “de facto judge” because he can arbitrarily overrule a city administrative court.

“What’s the point of going to these hearings?” said attorney Nadia Kahnauth, who represented 10 targeted stores in administrative court hearings in which her clients won reopening recommendations — only to have the decisions overturned by the sheriff.

A Brooklyn tobacco store on Fulton Street has been ordered to remain padlocked for a year, despite an administrative court hearing that determined the store did not sell cannabis at all.

“We could get through this in a few days or a month,” said Abdo Al Saidi, who has owned the Bed-Stuy store for about 15 years. “But a year?”

Losing his small business could force him onto welfare, he told the Post.

“How will I feed my family? » said Al Saidi.

Even big supporters of Operation Padlock To Protect agree that this part of the law gives the sheriff far too much discretion and power.

“I think the (state) law needs to be changed,” said City Councilman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan), who has favored eradicating illicit activity. tobacco stores, an almost personal crusade.

While largely supporting the grassroots effort, she has closely followed the rollout of Operation Padlock as chair of the council’s oversight committee and has previously called for better data reporting from the sheriff’s office and department of city finance.

“This needs to change so the sheriff has the final say,” Brewer told the Post. “There are certainly a lot (of stores) to close that are legitimately illicit. I don’t know why you have to close the ones that aren’t closed.

According to city records, the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings – OATH, which generally adjudicates fines and sanctions imposed by city agencies – issued recommendations to reopen 229 of the 799 stores that had hearings before OATH in early October .

But the sheriff refused to allow about 75 of the 229 that had been permitted to reopen, demanding they remain closed for up to a year.

State officials did not respond to The Post’s repeated requests for comment.

A City Hall representative responded to Post questions by saying only that more than 1,200 stores had been closed and more than $82 million in illicit products had been seized since the operation began in the spring.

“We will continue to exercise the authority given to us by the state to help keep our communities safe and create an environment in which legal cannabis operators can thrive,” said Deputy Press Secretary Liz Garcia in a statement.

OATH hearings rejecting sheriff’s store closure orders cite a range of factors: technical defects, no evidence of cannabis sales in a store, no cannabis found in a store or that a store actually complied with a prior cease and desist notice. and got rid of their black market weed.

In some cases, searches did uncover cannabis, but often the quantities were so small that they did not meet a “de minimis” requirement set by state law, which is not expressly defined , say the critics.

Other times, the sheriff presented strange evidence, like a few joints found in a worker’s backpack or, extraordinarily, in a customer’s pockets, in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

Regardless, many of these stores have been ordered to remain closed by the sheriff.

Miranda — whose office was recently raided and is under investigation for improperly seized cash and for possible shakedown plans – was given these powers by the same state law that paved the way for the vaunted Operation Padlock To Protect.

THE lawsponsored by powerful Adams ally and candidate for city comptroller, Jenifer Rajkumar, gives the sheriff final discretion over whether raided stores reopen — with no burden of proof required.

Rajkumar told the Post that the sheriff’s lockout powers were necessary because imposing simple fines on rogue stores was “an exercise in futility”, but she also noted that she was open to improving the law.

Attorney Lance Lazzaro, who filed a federal class action lawsuit challenging the law and representing the Fulton Street tobacco store, said: “It’s like we live in an authoritarian state. »

Kahnauth added: “So there’s no due process, is there?

“It defeats our purpose as attorneys presenting a viable defense,” Kahnauth said of the sheriff’s powers. “What you’re planning to do here is major: You’re not just slapping someone with a civil penalty. At worst, it is unconstitutional.

Last summer, Lazarro won a case in state courtwhich was immediately appealed, which could also overturn many of Operation Padlock’s closures.

According to OATH court notes, the evidence for the padlocking of Al Saidi’s Fulton Street store was that a weed dealer entered the store and conducted an illicit cannabis transaction inside with a 20-year-old undercover agent, leading the sheriff to claim the store was selling cannabis. weed to a minor.

Ironically, Al Saidi had long complained about the dealers in his store before the raid, the hearing noted.

The only cannabis found in the store was from the dealer, depending on the audience.

Six days later, Miranda wrote a pro forma letter rejecting the court order and issuing a “final decision” to keep the store closed for a year.

On Friday, Lazzaro filed papers against the city to reopen the Al Saidi store.

In the Bronx, a store owner told the Post that his store on Lydig Avenue was raided several times during Operation Padlock, with the sheriff leaving empty-handed each time.

The store’s previous owner had previously sold illegal cannabis. But when the new owner, Adam, who did not want his last name published in the newspaper for fear of retaliation, took over the lease in the spring, he removed all cannabis, tobacco and vaping products in the meantime a legal cannabis license from the state – but he still suffered a series of raids.

But a raid in early August was different, starting with 10 police officers bursting into the store with guns drawn, Adam said.

About ten minutes after the raid began, a small group of agents marched past a local drug dealer who sells weed on the same block as the store – in an effort similar to that of Al Saidi, said the store owner.

The store was immediately padlocked, putting him and his four employees out of work.

At his sworn hearing, Adam and his attorney, Kahnauth, even found the drug dealer who, according to the hearing officer, “testified credibly and established that he was the neighborhood pot dealer,” and determined that the store did not sell cannabis, recommending its immediate reopening.

The sheriff disagreed and ordered the store to remain closed for a year.

“I lost the whole store, a good business, that had nothing,” Adam told the Post. “Absolutely zero illegal things (sic) inside the store – no vapes, no tobacco, nothing, absolutely zero.”

Adam used to own three convenience stores, but thanks to Operation Padlock, he no longer has any.

Its other two were also closed during raids, but although they were allowed to reopen after their OATH hearings, in the convenience store business, customers can quickly develop new routines that don’t include your storefront, even temporarily padlocked.

“I reopened for a month, and that’s it. My business was making no money,” he said, “I was paying the rent out of my own pocket.

“I’ll never touch convenience stores, because now they’re a target,” he said. “You open a convenience store, you’re a target for the sheriffs. They’ll come and hit me any day.