“Inside a Brooklyn Sweatshop That Processes Tobacco for Bodegas”

Virginia recalled being several hours into her shift at a clandestine tobacco factory in northeast Brooklyn in early February when she abruptly abandoned her shift, overcome by dizziness and a pulsing headache that she said made her feel like she was drunk…

…Virginia performs this work at the dank, unventilated warehouse alongside more than a dozen other women, 13 hours a day, six days a week, for what she says is the equivalent of $8 an hour — when she gets paid at all….

…, HotHead Grabba, that boasts of 70 retailers in New York, Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, more than 40 in the five boroughs…

This week, seven current and former workers at the HotHead factory filed complaints with the New York State Department of Labor…

Maryland business records show a company by the name HotHead Grabba LLC registered in Silver Spring in July 2022. THE CITY did not get a response to messages sent to the Instagram account, and the person who responded to a call to the phone number associated with the most recent listed resident at the Maryland address hung up after being informed they were speaking with a reporter.