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Police seize 121 pot plants
By DARCIE LORENO Tribune Chronicle POSTED: May 21, 2008 |
Trumbull Ashtabula Group Drug Task Force members cut marijuana plants
Tuesday and stuff them into plastic bags for removal after making a raid at
an Ivy Hills condominium.
BAZETTA — A look in the front yard of an Ivy Hill Circle home Tuesday
explained the odor a neighbor said she smelled while tending her garden.
A Bazetta Township man was arrested and 121 marijuana plants seized from his
home in Ivy Hill Condominiums, where police say he’s been growing and
selling in the quiet neighborhood.
‘‘It’s really a shock to me,’’ said neighbor Mary Pritchett after finding
out that police raided her neighbor’s home Tuesday. ‘‘I never really saw
anything.’’
Police arrested Gerould Douce, 41, at his 2822-D Ivy Hill Circle condominium
Tuesday on charges of cultivating marijuana and having a weapon under
disability following a two-week investigation by TAG Law Enforcement Task
Force in conjunction with Bazetta Police Department, said TAG commander Sgt.
Jeff Orr.
‘‘This is his living,’’ Orr said of Douce. ‘‘It’s a small growth. It’s very
elaborate.’’
The raid was initiated after an anonymous tip, Orr said. When officials
arrived with a warrant about 10:30 a.m., Douce met them at the door with a
firearm in his hand, Orr said. Douce dropped the firearm when he realized
who they were, he said.
The growing operation was located in two of three upstairs bedrooms in the
condo, from where several growing lights and several other cultivating tools
were also taken, Orr said. The rooms were vented through the attic so
neighbors wouldn’t smell the plants, he said.
Orr didn’t yet have a value for the plants but he said full-grown plants
typically bring about $1,000 each.
Bazetta police Chief Chuck Sayers said the department hasn’t gotten
complaints from the neighbors about Douce.
‘‘This is a quiet neighborhood,’’ Sayers said. ‘‘There’s not a whole lot
that goes on here.’’
Douce was taken to Trumbull County Jail Tuesday and police said he’d be
arraigned this morning in Central District Court. Orr said Tuesday Douce
could also face charges of drug possession and possibly trafficking.
The condominiums are privately owned by residents in the complex. A project
manager would not comment on the situation following the raid Tuesday.
Pritchett said she never really saw much action around the man’s home. She
thought the noise and commotion she heard Tuesday morning was from
maintenance workers. But she did remember noticing a strange odor while
gardening near her own condo.
‘‘I just thought it was a skunk,’’ she said.
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