Complaint Leads Cops To Pot Grow Houses
By BILL RETTEW AND JOE SEELIG

SEBRING — Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton said Friday evening that after discovering a grow house on Lake Josephine Drive, yielding about 50 plants, another grow operation has been discovered.

The second is located on Williams Road, Benton said, and had more than 200 plants.

As yet, no value has been attached to the pot plants. The quality of the marijuana is so high it could have been worth as much as $4,000 per plant, Benton said.

Additional locations may be raided in the future, she said.

Friday afternoon, sheriff’s deputies were dismantling a grow house for marijuana cultivation, after one of the occupants at 2611 Lake Josephine Drive contacted the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office to complain about someone breaking a window.

Sheriff’s Maj. Mark Schrader said when deputies arrived Friday morning to investigate the possible shooting or rock throwing incident, the overwhelming odor of marijuana in the home led to the swearing out of the first search warrant.

It is unclear if the occupants of the house were the owners, Schrader said. Two people were arrested from the first grow house.

Investigators discovered at least one broken window at the home, Schrader said.

Shortly after the first call, four males were questioned after the vehicle they were riding in matched the description of a vehicle alleged to be involved in the window breaking incident.

The vehicle was stopped by sheriff’s deputies east of the Lake Josephine Drive home.

Schrader was not immediately aware of any connection between the vehicle stop and the earlier disturbance. However, by late afternoon Friday at least one of the occupants was taken into custody on an undisclosed charge.

At about 11 a.m., Highlands County sheriff’s deputy Juan Delgado was preparing a white van that could be linked to the home for possible seizure and impoundment.

Earlier in the day, the van was occupied by a lone male subject and parked on a dirt road off of Orange Blossom Boulevard, about two miles southwest from the home, said Delgado.

Schrader said the crime scene team was still dismantling the grow house operation and no value had yet been determined in the seizure.
More information will be made available at a later time, Schrader said.