SHERIFF FINDS ELABORATE POT SYSTEM

A high-quality marijuana operation seized Tuesday night at an indoor
lab in Auburntown may have brought drug-makers millions of dollars, a
Cannon County sheriff's investigator said.

When deputies searched the home on state Route 96 East, they
confiscated 83 high-quality plants, many with buds on them. Suspected
pot-grower Jeffrey R. Bradley, 19, of Long Beach, Miss., was arrested
at the home on marijuana chargesby Investigator Roy Sullivan.

Investigator Charlie Wilder said the marijuana would bring $6,800 per
plant or a total of more than $500,000 if sold in quarter-ounce packages.

Acting on citizen complaints, deputies recently began watching the
vacant house, which had blocked-up windows and a detached garage.
They served a search warrant at the property Tuesday night on state
Route 96 West in Auburntown about a quarter-mile from Dutton's
Market, just east of the northeast Rutherford County line. Auburntown
volunteer firefighters accompanied them in case of a fire or injuries.

Sullivan said the lab is believed connected to 248 marijuana plants
found March 24 in a burning barn on McBride Lane. In that case,
Richard Adam White, 25, of Cason Lane was charged with manufacturing
more than 100 plants.

More arrests are pending in connection with the Auburntown operation.

Inside the garage, deputies found two separate rooms with a
sophisticated growing operation. Smaller plants were located in one
room, with budded plants more than 6 feet tall in a second room. The
plants were tied with dental floss to keep them from falling over.

Motorized lights from the ceiling constantly moved back and forth on
tracks to give equal lighting to the plants. Chemicals and magazines
about marijuana growing operations lined a back wall. The plants were
grown without dirt but were in a water or hydroponics filtration system.

"The advantage to this is the plants grow twice as fast as they
normally do," Sullivan said.

Sheriff Kenny Wetzel said carbon dioxide was injected into the water
to promote the growth.

Wetzel found a book listing calculations and formulas for adding nutrients.

"Somebody knows what they're doing," the sheriff said.

Sullivan said the plants were cloned so the growers didn't have to
start from seed. He believes the plants could be harvested every two
or three months.

"It's a perpetual harvest," Sullivan said. "This is definitely a
long-term operation."

Seeds and piles of stems were found in the vacant house, indicating
at least one previous harvest.

Wetzel said because of helicopter searches, marijuana growers have
turned to indoor, hydroponics systems in rural areas to elude law enforcement.

"They produce more," Wetzel said. "The monetary yield is a lot higher."

People are asked to call the sheriff's department at 563-4322 when
they smell chemicals or marijuana, see suspicious activity or notice
houses with windows blocked, which may be indicators of illegal drug
activity, the sheriff said.

"We're going to put as many out of business as we can," Wetzel said.