RECORD BREAKING BUST

The Louisa County Sheriff's Office finished some overdue yard work at
Geoffrey Cummings' Mt. Airy Road home last Wednesday, cutting the grass and
pulling a whole lot of weeds.

In the largest marijuana manufacturing bust in the county's history, the
LCSO, with the assistance of other agencies, seized 352 marijuana plants
from four fields on Cummings' 30-acre property.

Officers also recovered a firearm and evidence that may connect Cummings to
the cultivation of the fields, including a shovel, transplanting bins, and
a hose which was hooked up to the home's water supply.

With the street value of each plant estimated at $2,500 after processing,
the total value of the bust is in excess of $850,000.

"That's a lot of marijuana,"said Major Donald A. Lowe, LCSO. "I think it's
safe to say that this is definitely going to put a dent in some of the
marijuana trafficking around the county."

The 52-year-old Cummings has been charged with two felonies, manufacture of
marijuana and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He is scheduled
to appear in Louisa County General District Court on November 11, at 11 a.m.

Cummings is already set for a September 11 trial on eleven unrelated counts
of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Police and prosecutors allege
that he hosted a party at his residence this spring, providing alcohol to
minors.

"We fly over the county and we look for hot spots during the growing
season," said Lowe of the regular eradication efforts. "This was an area
that we wanted to check when we did a fly-over, and it panned out."

Once law enforcement made a visual recognition of what appeared to be
marijuana, Lowe said they "sent in the ground units."

"At the time that they made entry on the property, we had one individual
[Cummings] that was exiting the house and had a shoe box in hand," Lowe
explained.

The shoe box was full of what appeared to be marijuana seeds and a small
amount of smokable marijuana, which will be sent to the crime lab for analysis.

Eradication is a cooperative effort. A total of 20 officers from the Louisa
County Narcotics Task Force, Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, Virginia
State Police, Fluvanna County Sheriff's Office, the Governor's Initiative
Against Narcotics Trafficking, and the Virginia Air National Guard all took
part in the effort.

"It's a good joint working group," Lowe said, with no pun intended.
"Everybody gets together all for a single purpose, and everybody has an
expertise in one area or another." Make that 21 officers.

The LCSO's youngest officer, the rookie bloodhound Maggie, started her
career off with a bang as she established that Cummings' scent was present
around the plants and on cultivation equipment.

"This is her first case, and she was able to identify our suspect's
presence in one of the fields," Lowe said. "We're very proud of Patrick and
Maggie."

LCSO Sgt. Patrick Sheridan said that Maggie had just completed her training
in Loudoun County, and was pleased that the hard work he and Maggie have
put in is already paying off.

The scent evidence established by the K-9 unit could prove to be extremely
important in court.

"You have to show knowledge of [the marijuana plants], and then you have to
show where [the suspect] was actually tending to it," said Lowe of making a
strong case.

Demonstrating a suspect's effort to cultivate, feed or water the plants is
crucial to proving a charge of manufacture of marijuana, Lowe explained.
That evidence helps rule out situations where someone stumbles across a
field or where marijuana is grown on a property without the landowner's
knowledge.