Drug dog trainees find pot by accident

Warren: Unexpected raid

By CHRISTOPHER BOBBY Tribune Chronicle

WARREN - Drug agents stumbled onto a marijuana cultivation operation Tuesday afternoon after dogs-in-training sniffed it out when they began their maneuvers.

Dave Blosser said he was using an alley between Union and Swallow Street S.W. to train the dogs for police in Niles and Fowler. Blosser was working with Niles police Officer Todd Mobley and exercising Mobley's dog Pino as well.

''The dogs got outside and just caught the smell,'' Blosser said. They got excited about a home on Tod Avenue S.W.

Blosser said he immediately called agents with Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force.

Agents arrived and asked for consent to search. When they were turned down, the agents gained a search warrant from Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan to do a search anyway.

Detective Rick Tackett said agents found at least 100 mature marijuana plants that were 3 to 4 feet high in three rooms in the house at 446 Tod Ave.

The plants were found in two second-floor rooms and another room in the basement, Tackett said.

''Some of the plants were hanging up drying upstairs,'' he said.

Facing felony charges of cultivation and expected to be arraigned today in Warren Municipal Court were occupants of the house, Raymond R. Moore, 47, and Jessica Jean Lindenmuth, 35.