POLICE DRUG RAID TURNS UP NOTHING BUT ROSES

Officers Expected To Find Marijuana But Discovered Flowers.

TURNER -- Mario Montesano had no idea what was happening when police ordered
him to put his hands up and come out of his house at 7 a.m. Friday.

The former Marion County sheriff's deputy and ex-Navy lieutenant was asleep
when 20 officers with assault rifles served a drug search warrant at his
house at 12894 Woodpecker Drive SE, he said.

"It was my wake-up call," he said. He saw 15 to 20 cars, a SWAT truck and
helicopters.

After two and a half hours of searching his home for marijuana, police found
nothing and apologized for the inconvenience, said Montesano, 56.

Officers from the Salem Area Interagency Narcotics Team told Montesano they
received three anonymous calls reporting an abundance of soil, a tarp and a
light under the tarp at his home, he said.

"Apparently someone reported I have a lot of potting soil, and I must be
growing marijuana," he said.

He recently started a small nursery, where he's growing roses. The tarp is
stretched over an old bus he's converting into a motor home, he said. He
turns the light on underneath when he's working on it.

"It was awfully slim evidence to get a search warrant," he said. "It's
turning into a police state."

Police refused to comment on the raid other than confirming it happened.

Montesano is in his 26th year working with the Oregon Department of
Transportation training law enforcement officers on truck safety.

Montesano, who was a Marion County deputy in 1973, left the sheriff's office
after only a short stint. "I decided police work was not for me," he said.
"I can't take life that seriously."