Metro

Pot-growing firefighter sentenced to five years in prison

A New York City firefighter was sentenced to five years in prison for growing more than $500,000 worth of marijuana plants in a Queens basement.

Patrick Murray was convicted in Brooklyn federal court last summer of conspiring to grow more than 100 marijuana plants, said Assistant US Attorney Soumya Dayananda.

Judge John Gleeson sentenced Murray to the minimum penalty mandated under law for supplying the expensive hydroponic marijuana to a drug-trafficking ring that had been under investigation by the federal agents for a year.

Murray was arrested in 2009 after an anonymous caller reported seeing him haul lights used to grow marijuana out of the Queens Village house.

Tenants in the building had also complained that the basement reeked of marijuana. Murray, a FDNY veteran with two citations for heroism had been assigned to Engine Co. 292 in Woodside, Queens.