2 Arrested, $1 Million Of Marijuana Seized At Watsonville Home
WATSONVILLE (KCBS) - Two men were arrested and 130 pounds of marijuana was seized at a raid Friday on an alleged grow house in Watsonville, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department said.
The investigation began last week with an anonymous tip alerting police to a possible indoor growing and selling operation in the 600 block of Rodriguez St., said Deputy April Skalland.
Detectives discovered the person renting the house had applied for a permit to do construction work, but did not follow up on the permit application.
Skalland said investigators also contacted Pacific Gas and Electric to review the unit's utility bill, "bill which had just skyrocketed over and beyond what a normal use would be."
The two men caught inside the house when the Sherriff's Department executed a search warrant have been identified as 30-year-old Carl March of Watsonville and 25-year-old Lloyd Harmon of Santa Cruz. They face charges of cultivating marijuana, selling marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale.
Police seized $67,000 in cash, cash counting machines, commercial-grade scales and packaging materials.
Skalland said the house reeked from the smell of 130 pounds of processed marijuana with an estimated street value of $1 million.
Tables throughout the house were piled high with pot, "sealed in a vacuum tight packaging and you could still just smell the odor," Skalland said, adding it was the biggest pot bust she had seen in her career.
(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
