Marijuana Plants

Police in Howard County say they busted a marijuana growing operation at a house in Laurel, seizing 341 plants that authorities estimate could yield 170 pounds of pot worth more than a half million dollars. Police charged Manoj Unni, 30, of the 9300 block of Cross Timbers Court, with several drug counts. Police said they searched the house on Wednesday and found the alleged growing operation in the basement, with "sophisticated growing equipment. " Police said they found "high-intensity lights, a dehumidifier, air filters, water pumping systems, lighting timers, a CO2 system and a ventilation system.

Aberdeen Tyrone D. Davis, 31, of the 400 block of Washington Street, was charged Friday with possessing marijuana. Robin D. Sloane, 54, of the 100 block of Hanover Street, was charged Friday with possessing a drug other than marijuana. Julie Tomar Paradis, 30, of the 600 block of West Bel Air Avenue, was charged Friday with failing to appear for court in a case in which she was charged with driving while under the influence of alcohol, driving while impaired by alcohol and drugs, changing lanes unsafely and failing to display a registration card upon demand.

Nineteen marijuana plants were spotted growing off a path on county property at the Carroll County Farm Museum by helicopter Thursday.Police records show the plants, between 3 feet and 6 feet tall, were sighted from the air at about 12:20 p.m. Thursday by members of a Maryland State Police marijuana eradication unit and the Maryland National Guard.Officers went in and uprooted the plants, records said.Representatives of the Carroll County Farm Museum could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Your recent front page article about criminal asset seizures and the Diffenderffers was good investigative reporting ("Seizing assets to take profits from crime," Feb. 17). To recap, Michael Diffenderffer had marijuana plants in his basement. The police discovered them, but he turned up dead, so there was nobody to convict. The government then moved to confiscate the house from his evidently innocent widow in a forfeiture action. Nowadays, it is apparently routine for the government to take property as punishment before, or without, a conviction.

Three Columbia residents are facing a variety of drug charges after Howard County police reported finding marijuana plants inside a closet in a Harper's Choice home Monday night.Patrol officers obtained a search and seizure warrant for a home in the 5200 block of Rivendell Lane in Harper's Choice after seeing drug paraphernalia there during a previous visit, police said.About 9:30 p.m. Monday, officers found 4 pounds of marijuana, manufacturing equipment and drug paraphernalia in a walk-in closet that had been coverted into a greenhouse to grow marijuana, police said.

County police seized 263 marijuana plants that were being cultivatedin thick woods off St. George's Barber Road in Davidsonville.On Aug. 3, narcotic investigators from the Marijuana Eradication Recognizance Team found the plants while flying over the area in a small plane, county police said.The team includes officers from state and county police and members of the Army National Guard.The officers searched the area on foot and found the plants, which weighed about 10 pounds each. Investigators said each plant would have yielded about one pound of marijuana each.

Frederick County sheriff's deputies seized 30 marijuana plants from a house garden outside New Windsor after a mortgage company employee spotted the plants on a routine investigation, officials said.The house -- on Hemp Avenue, which runs off Route 31 about a mile into Frederick County -- was unoccupied when they confiscated the plants Monday, deputies said. The plants ranged from a foot to 7 feet high, said Sgt. Ralf Berger, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. Some of the plants were in containers and appeared to have been harvested.

An Anne Arundel County police narcotics unit seized 6-foot-tall marijuana plants Monday that were growing in the back yard of a Linthicum house, police said. They estimated the street value of the crop at nearly $11,000. Michael Anthony Zimmerman, 47, and Julie Montgomery, 30, both of the 200 block of Church Circle, were charged with manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance, possession of marijuana and heroin and possession of drug paraphenalia, police said. The northern district's tactical narcotics team obtained a search warrant for the house.

County police seized $35,000 worth of marijuana plants growing near woods in Arnold on Wednesday after officers flying over the area in a helicopter saw the plants.Cpl. Larry Walker and Sgt. Michael Madison saw 78 plants growing in three sites of about 50 feet by 60 feet each along Hilltop Road near Deep Creek Avenue about 3: 30 p.m., police said. It was not immediately known who owns the land, they said.Police did not make an arrest because they do not know who planted the marijuana, said Officer Carol Frye, department spokeswoman.

A security supervisor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant has been charged with growing a patch of nearly 900 marijuana plants found in late July on the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. property, authorities said yesterday.Cpl. Leslie A. Meyers, a detective in the Calvert County sheriff's office, said he and other deputies watched over the pot patch for three weeks, waiting to see who would show up to harvest the crop.Late Thursday afternoon, they watched a man park a truck nearby, walk over to the hallucinogenic garden and pick a batch of leaves, stuffing them into a plastic Safeway grocery bag, Corporal Meyers said.

Anne Arundel County police have charged a 51-year-old Glen Burnie man with manufacturing explosive devices and possession of marijuana. Delmus Marshal Rice Jr. was arrested Thursday at his home in the 100 block of Georgia Avenue NW. Officers were executing a narcotics warrant at the home shortly before noon, when they found explosive making materials, two pipe bombs and three black powder pistols. The county fire department and the Annapolis city bomb squad recovered the explosives.

Anne Arundel County police said they charged twin brothers in connection with finding more than two dozen suspected marijuana plants growing in the backyard of a home in Pasadena. Police said they had obtained a warrant to search a home in the first block of Nicholson Drive for an investigation into marijuana growing there. They searched the home around 8:23 a.m. Sunday and found 26 marijuana plants growing in the backyard and ranging in height from three feet to nine feet, police said.

Anne Arundel County police recovered $50,000 worth of marijuana plants and two dozen firearms, most of them unregistered, in a search and seizure operation in a Gambrills home on Friday. Police arrested 53-year-old Nicholas Vincent Dominick, who lives at the home, at 528 Watts Ave., and was there when police arrived. Dominick is charged with various counts of drug- and gun-related offenses. Police had received several complaints about marijuana being grown at the home, which is about a quarter of a mile from Arundel High School.

An argument over an unpaid pool maintenance bill led to the arrest of a Pasadena woman on drug charges Tuesday. Joan Della Lott, 52, was arrested at her Luke Drive home for cultivating marijuana, not for arguing about an unpaid bill. The pool man called police to the home about noon. While mediating the dispute, officers spotted marijuana plants growing in wooden planters on the property, which is near Mountain Road. Police said they seized four plants, nearly 20 feet in length, with an estimated street value of $3,300.

Police in Howard County say they busted a marijuana growing operation at a house in Laurel, seizing 341 plants that authorities estimate could yield 170 pounds of pot worth more than a half million dollars. Police charged Manoj Unni, 30, of the 9300 block of Cross Timbers Court, with several drug counts. Police said they searched the house on Wednesday and found the alleged growing operation in the basement, with "sophisticated growing equipment. " Police said they found "high-intensity lights, a dehumidifier, air filters, water pumping systems, lighting timers, a CO2 system and a ventilation system.

Fire officials responding to reports of a possible gas leak Monday night in East Baltimore said they found what appeared to be a methamphetamine lab, but later determined that it was a large marijuana growing operation. Hazmat team members were called to a vacant home in the 3300 block of McElderry St. about 8 p.m. by Baltimore Gas & Electric workers, who received "reports of an odor of natural gas at that location," said Chief Kevin Cartwright, Baltimore Fire Department spokesman.

County police officers found 15 marijuana plants growing in the woods in Patapsco State Park Friday afternoon. They say they are hoping the owners will turn themselves in.Detectives even left a business card, asking "the unknown persons to surrender when they discover their loss," according to a police prepared statement.Authorities said they checked the area, about one mile into the woods off Nursery Road in Linthicum, after an anonymous tip.Police said the plants had a street value of $4,000.

SPRING GAP -- On a hill deep in the forest, authorities say, they have uncovered a marijuana processing laboratory and $1.25 million in plants being watered by an elaborate irrigation system."

Seven people have been arrested on drug charges at a Dundalk night club after more than 100 Baltimore County police officers raided the place last week, police said. Culminating a nearly 15-month investigation, the police carried out a search warrant at the Black Hole Rock Club on German Hill Road at about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, arresting the club manager and six others. The officers, accompanied by a representative of the Baltimore County State's Attorney's office, also seized an array of illegal drugs: marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine and psilocybin mushrooms.

While looking for signs of structural damage after a car crashed into an Ellicott City home and set it ablaze earlier this month, fire officials found something else: a basement marijuana farm, complete with a hydroponic system, lighting and 19 large pot plants, according to Howard County police. On Wednesday morning, police arrested the owner of the home, Richard Kyle Marriott, 44, who faces drug possession and distribution charges. Leonard H. Shapiro, Marriott's lawyer, said his client turned himself in and "has been cooperative.