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Man arrested in pot raid
By BILL RODGERS Tribune Chronicle
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WARREN — One arrest was made Wednesday, and more are
possible following a raid on a West Farmington home.
Police seized 30 marijuana plants from outside the home Tuesday and said
they turned up hundreds of pounds of processed marijuana and more than 80
guns during a search inside Wednesday.
Lloyd A. Karr, 48 of 7349 Girdle Road, will be arraigned in Newton Falls
Municipal Court today on charges of drug abuse, drug trafficking and
cultivation of marijuana, police said. All of the charges are second-degree
felonies.
After spotting the plants Tuesday during a flyover, members of the Trumbull,
Ashtabula and Geauga (TAG) Law Enforcement Task Force obtained a search
warrant for Karr’s home. Police reported finding 81 firearms, 233.15 pounds
of processed marijuana, $18,170 cash and drug paraphernalia in addition.
Trumbull County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Ernest Cook said the street value for
the processed marijuana was $466,000.
‘‘This will have a major impact on crime in the northern townships,’’ Cook
said.
Cook said police received a tip about the plants three months before the
raid. TAG officers reported finding the marijuana planted in 5-gallon
buckets near a pond in the home’s backyard, and that a watering hose ran
from the pond to the plants.
Police said Karr cooperated with the search. After obtaining a warrant,
police began to find the guns and processed marijuana, some of which was
bound in 20-pound blocks. TAG leader Jeff Orr said it was possible that some
of it wasn’t home-grown and that it could have been shipped from Mexico.
Police were running background checks on the firearms, which were found all
over the property, including the kitchen, bedroom, garage and barn.
The raid followed an aerial drug eradication program conducted by TAG on
Monday and Tuesday. TAG, working with the Ohio State Highway Patrol Airwing
and Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, flew a helicopter
low over properties in Trumbull and Ashtabula counties where marijuana was
suspected. A total 533 marijuana plants were confiscated.
Orr said Tuesday that the raid on Karr’s property uncovered the largest
single cache of marijuana police had found in the two days.
TAG conducts the flyovers a few times each year. Orr said funding for the
flyovers comes through the state, which awards money based on how many
plants were found the previous year.
‘‘We’re one of the leading (task forces) in the state,’’ Orr said.
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