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Undercover deputies said a Groveland man grew hundreds of meticulously groomed marijuana plants in his middle-class home for the past year, unbeknown to neighbors.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office said deputies seized 257 plants and 11 pounds of processed marijuana from the Swanson Street home Thursday. The drugs had a combined street value of $290,000, sheriff's officials said.
Deputies arrested the homeowner, John D. Barton, 58, and held him in Lake County Jail on multiple drug charges.
Acting on an anonymous tip received late last month, an undercover team suspected Barton had developed a large-scale growing operation. Armed with a search warrant, they raided the home early Thursday morning.
Along with an elaborate cultivation system of timed lights, fertilizers and humidifiers, deputies said they found air cleansing machines to remove the pungent scent of marijuana, which might have tipped off anyone walking near the home.
"Oddly enough, when we went in we didn't smell anything," said the undercover deputy who led the raid.
Inside the two-story home, deputies said, they found hundreds of small plants recently repotted, and what looked like the remains of a harvest from last month. The drugs in Barton's house were worth three times what marijuana smuggled from Mexico could fetch on the street, primarily because each plant had been carefully nurtured and watered by hand, the undercover deputy said.
"It's a full-time job, let me tell you," he said.
Although Barton told a neighbor he drove a truck at night, deputies said his only job was growing the marijuana and harvesting it up to four times a year.
Acting Sheriff Gary Borders commended the officers and called the homegrown drugs a "high-level operation," netting one of the biggest busts of the year.
Newshawk: user - 420 Magazine
Source: Orlando Sentinel
Pubdate: 10 November 2006
Author: Erin Cox
Copyright: 2006 Orlando Sentinel Communications
Contact: Orlando Sentinel : Site Services : Orlando news and information, Orlando weather and hurricane coverage, sports, entertainment, shopping, restaurants, real estate, Orlando jobs, business, classifieds and more.
Website: Deputies seize marijuana plants in Groveland raid
The Lake County Sheriff's Office said deputies seized 257 plants and 11 pounds of processed marijuana from the Swanson Street home Thursday. The drugs had a combined street value of $290,000, sheriff's officials said.
Deputies arrested the homeowner, John D. Barton, 58, and held him in Lake County Jail on multiple drug charges.
Acting on an anonymous tip received late last month, an undercover team suspected Barton had developed a large-scale growing operation. Armed with a search warrant, they raided the home early Thursday morning.
Along with an elaborate cultivation system of timed lights, fertilizers and humidifiers, deputies said they found air cleansing machines to remove the pungent scent of marijuana, which might have tipped off anyone walking near the home.
"Oddly enough, when we went in we didn't smell anything," said the undercover deputy who led the raid.
Inside the two-story home, deputies said, they found hundreds of small plants recently repotted, and what looked like the remains of a harvest from last month. The drugs in Barton's house were worth three times what marijuana smuggled from Mexico could fetch on the street, primarily because each plant had been carefully nurtured and watered by hand, the undercover deputy said.
"It's a full-time job, let me tell you," he said.
Although Barton told a neighbor he drove a truck at night, deputies said his only job was growing the marijuana and harvesting it up to four times a year.
Acting Sheriff Gary Borders commended the officers and called the homegrown drugs a "high-level operation," netting one of the biggest busts of the year.
Newshawk: user - 420 Magazine
Source: Orlando Sentinel
Pubdate: 10 November 2006
Author: Erin Cox
Copyright: 2006 Orlando Sentinel Communications
Contact: Orlando Sentinel : Site Services : Orlando news and information, Orlando weather and hurricane coverage, sports, entertainment, shopping, restaurants, real estate, Orlando jobs, business, classifieds and more.
Website: Deputies seize marijuana plants in Groveland raid
