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Molino Marijuana: $80K Worth Of Pot Found Growing Behind House (With Photo Gallery)
September 30, 2011
Escambia County deputies are working to determine who was responsible for tens of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana found growing behind a Molino home Thursday afternoon.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Air One helicopter located about 80 marijuana plants as they were flying a marijuana eradication mission. Tactical Flight Officer Sgt. Vince Odenbrett and pilot Rich Hunt were flying over the area of Highway 29 and Highway 97 when they located the plants behind a home at 7511 North Highway 29. Patrol units and narcotics investigators were called to take over the eradication process and the investigation. The plants ranged in height from about five inches to five feet.
Sgt. Robert Quinata, assistant officer in charge of the ECSO Narcotics Division, said the marijuana plants had a street value of about $80,000. No arrests had been made as of Thursday night as the investigation continued.
The house at 7511 North Highway 29 is located down a long driveway, blocked from view from the highway by a large wooded area. Deputies said the plants were growing in an open area behind the home, close to a shed.
According to the Escambia County Property Appraiser, the property belongs to Keith and Donna Ciano, but deputies said they don’t know yet if the plants belonged to them.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Pictured above and below: Marijuana plants found and removed from behind a home on Highway 29 in Molino Thursday. Pictured top inset: Deputy Mike Coburn with the marijuana plants. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
46 Responses to “Molino Marijuana: $80K Worth Of Pot Found Growing Behind House (With Photo Gallery)”
I don’t understand why most of you made the comments that you did. YES, marijuana is illegal, and I praise God everytime drugs get taken off the street, because, yes it is the gateway to meth, crack, ecstacy….and guess what,?? Yeah, perscription drugs too! Just because someone can get a perscription and make it legal doesn’t make it right!!! IT’S ALL DOPE, AND IT IS ALL FROM SATAN USED TO STEAL, KILL, AND DESTROY GOD’S PEOPLE! And guess what…even if it does not lead a person to other drugs, marijuana is bad enough just in itself. It is also destroying families, destroying marriages, and destroying our nation’s children. It is demotivating, it makes people sit on their butts and eat too much. And if you think people don’t steal and rob to get some pot, you are wrong again. An Addict is an addict!
Also…I realize a young man, a pizza delivery man, was murdered, and yes…it was probably a robbery for money to get drugs. BUT why question where the helicopters were then!?! This is tragic that this happened, but it does not work like that and we all know it. Did the police department waste money? NO! I mean really….you think they don’t know there are murderers, rapist, and child molestors walking the streets? They do what they can when they can. Our country is going to hell and people that think that drugs or the least of the problem….ARE THE PROBLEM. Your on dope too….or you would see the truth.
To our fellow hardworking hypocrites….. Your religion is what you do when your sermon is over!!! As always… Imagine that.
So, I guess the marijuana made them stab the Domino’s guy and rob the Dollar General too? And I guess Marijuana to blame for the “working” man that sits on on his I Phone and labtop when he is suppose to be working???? Just blame the Whataburger ALL on Mary Jane!!!!
SERIOUSLY WHERE WAS THIS CHOPPER WHEN MY HOME AND NEIGHBORS HOMES WERE ROBBED OF ALL BELONGINGS? I’m sure the marijuana plant didn’t jump out of its sack and make them rob our homes!!!!!!! Yea! Were all criminals and bad people because we work our behind off all day and might know a little about what grows from the earth when we get home. The man laying your brick that works in the sun all day, the woman that just deposited your money at the bank, the man that just plunged your toilet, your divorce lawyer, your chiropractor, your neighbor etc. To bad it cant be given to our cancer patients that are pretty much forced to pay thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical pills a year to cope or “cure” their cancer when it causes more side effects than the cancer itself. Anything can be abused. Just like the case of beer sitting in your fridge. This actually shocks me and is a pure WASTE of OUR tax money…. Why aren’t they fighting violence, protecting our belongings and privacy of our homes, & crime on the street???? Instead they are violating privacy….
I sure we will be able to sleep better tonight knowing the sack of pot plants is taken in!! Erradicated the street! Really, give me a break. ECSO is worse than my wife and her salon at a tea party. Our tax dollars are chopped, not crime.
$80,000 dollars worth of weed,eh? So that works out to $1000 per plant. Wonder how much we spent to find this trove?
I suspect he marijuana laws are selectively enforced and that the publicized busts we hear about here and elsewhere are about keeping the federal funding coming. Lots of the folks griping about federal expenditures should be complaining about this. Marijuana is much ado about nothing.
We cut education budgets while paying for officers to joyride in the sky looking for a few measly weeds. Oh well.
As far as those who think people who disagree with this should move to another country, that is an absurd and ridiculous position to take. It is an American right to disagree and to express that disagreement. Next time you disagree with something Obama says or does will you move?
I have sit in on many NA meetings and have a son who is an addict. When asked what triggered him to do the heavier drugs such as crack, meth, etc.he replied”beer and pot”. I personally believe that will power along with treatment can help you fight addiction. I do not personally dislike pot, as it is a natural herb, but this spice crap and bath salt are killing people because of the man-made chemicals being used to make it. I also know of several friends who have lost their jobs for failing a drug test. Remember it is illegal and until they legalize it we must obey the law. The SO was just doing what they are paid to do.
Your local police are not the ones that set the current street value, the Federal Government set the value of every plant, regardless of size to be $1,000. It doesn’t matter how much or little THC there is in the plant, it is still marijuana and the growing of marijuana is more serious than just possession of a little “weed” on your pocket. You can minimize the situation all you wish but it is an illegal drug that the cops found using a tool. Is the uproar mostly the pot smokers and criminals upset? Too funny.
WOW!!! I bet they sure felt like they SAVED the DAY over some pot plants growin in the woods. HUGE BUST of the CENTURY!!!! Sure its illegal but really do you here of anyone crashing cars and fighting on pot. No, and if there is its nothing to do with the pot its over MONEY and the way of the PEOPLE. Nothing better to do in good ole’ Pensacola.
The police take every plant seized, regardless of size, and determine how much the plants would bring if sold on the street, IF THEY WERE GROWN TO MATURITY. They don’t care that a plant is 5 inches tall and good for nothing; they make it worth something! They also don’t care about the quality of marijuana; some homegrown is so crappy you just think you have a buzz. people growing for their own personal use should be left alone. The value of the seized crop should be based on it’s street value at the time it is seized, not what it MIGHT bring IF it were grown to harvest and then sold. Crappy homegrown would not have the same street value as other, better, stronger marijuanas; I would like to know if they assign the same $$ value to all marijuana. How can we sleep comfortably at night, knowing our tax dollars are spent on marijuana hunts, when people are being murdered, homes are being invaded, and animals are being tortured and mutilated? Bottom line: marijuana laws should be changed, they are wrong. And the deputies are doing their job, even if we don’t agree with it.
Where was the chopper when the kid got stabbed to death at Domino’s the other night??!!
I wish you people would come off it. The very ones commenting on how the sheriffs office is only doing their job, would fall dead away if people knew what they do for fun on a daily basis. We have crack , meth and a host of other drugs that are killing people day in and day out…..I haven’t heard of one incident where smoking marijuana harmed you , caused you to kill someone, made you go crazy and do stupid things. I don’t smoke pot or do any other drug including alcohol but if someone wants to light up a joint and smoke it I could care less. Get the meth and crack off the streets leave the pot alone. One more thing It is a waste of tax payers money to fly a helicopter to find marijuana……..Give us a break and get the real drugs off the street…..
Good law enforcement and teamwork by ECSO. The rules on pot cultivation may not be popular with many, but it is the law. Sheriff Morgan does not pick and choose which laws he enforces, he enforces the laws on the books, as required of his office. Moreover I am of the opinion, the ECSO should perform a feasibility study into acquiring and operating, a small derigible like in the other article, in addition to the helicopter. The derigible could be used for aireal patrols and surveillance, at lower fuel cost per hour as opposed to the helicopter. The helicopter would then only have to be operated, for training and rapid response.
I can you call it a waste? It got rid of illegal drugs regardless if it is pot or cocaine. They are only doing what we tax payers request they do.
Wow, I cannot believe in the number of people that think everything the ECSO does with that helicopter is a waste of time. They spot a little dope and catch people and it seems that the dope heads and criminals are the ones on here bashing. Im actually surprised you can type something more that three letters. The men and women of the ECSO work hard to do the right thing.
Notastoner…one of the great truths to come from the internet came from George Washington when he met with Abraham Lincoln, ..don’t believe everything you read on the internet. However, if your granny gets run over by a stoned driver, she is just as hurt as if this alleged person is driving under the influence of intoxicating beverages. Then, will you want law enforcement officers to arrest the offender, and to testify on your families behalf in a civil trial?
WOW…an article on weed and there are 29 responses or more…an article about some other subject about a drunk or a robbery…and you get 12 – 15…MMMM
makes me think…weed is a more interesting subject to discuss ….something we all MAY know a little about ….including me…justa think’n
Way to waste our tax dollars ECSO!
If weed is a gateway drug, I would like to take that a step further. Milk is a gateway drug, apple juice is a gateway drug, water is also a gateway drug. There is no alcoholic, meth head, crackhead, junky, or pot-head alive who has not drank milk, apple juice, or water at some time before they moved on to harder things.
“Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.”
- George Washington
REGARDING:
“Marijuana is a HERB!!!! – - – pharmaceutical companies would rather give you their synthetic pills that are not of the land.”
Getting a little paranoid there aren’t you?
There are many poisonous herbs — not that marijuana is one of them, but simply being an herb does not assure safe consumption. I’m sure your “bible” brags on it, but that doesn’t mean others have to believe.
Pharmaceutical companies didn’t outlaw it; Congress did. Many of them use drugs derived from plants (what seems magically to you to be OF THE LAND). They aren’t prejudiced against plants. They aren’t prejudiced in favor of synthetics. They DO favor things they can patent and hold exclusive rights to sell for a while, but not because of their origin. They recently got the FDA to support a patent on a plant based gout medication (colchicine) which has been used over 2,000 years — and then jacked the price up ten or a hundred times, I forget which..
Best to just stick to the facts: dealing in marijuana is lucrative solely because it is illegal. If it were legal, there would be no money to be made from its sale. Other than its occasional tendency to cause paranoia, it’s fairly harmless in and of itself.
It will remain illegal until one of our presidents breaks the international treaty Nixon pushed through. The current one and several previous ones admitted using the weed but none of them felt like doing away with the treaty.
David for working brains
Well, I guess the guys that stabbed the pizza delivery guy did so because they needed weed. But why is that you can go to the doctors and get meds that will eat the lining of your stomach, cause more bad side effects than your condition itself? Some people actually use marijuana as a source of medication. Take cancer patients, aids patients, and people with chronic pain into perception. If marijuana would help someone in your family eat, sleep, or just feel better all around wouldn’t you be up for it? Why do people who are uneducated about the medicinal uses of this HERB are the first ones to condemn its uses? If you will go to your Bible and read it. Marijuana is a HERB!!!! Why do you think marijuana is illegal? The answer is because the pharmaceutical companies would rather give you their synthetic pills that are not of the land. Marijuana is all natural and of the land. Thank you and have a good day.
War on Drugs:
When prohibition ended, organized crime found another avenue to support itself – if you legalize drugs, the illegal money earners will reinvent themselves yet again.
If you tax drugs, you will fund new govt agencies that cannot support themselves.
Facts are every drugs kills, alcohol, cigarettes, you name it. All but marijuana, not one reported death from it. So many more medical and textile uses for marijuana, can’t say that about other drugs.
Facts are every senior politician, or financially well off family since prohibition that has gotten into government made their money bootlegging alcohol when it was “illegal,” so for those of you who want to say weed is illegal, boo whoo. One day years from now we’ll look back on this era of modern man and realize just how stupid we all were about this plant.
Until then the ones who have the money, want to control the money or make laws controlling the people to keep the people repressed, broke and addicted to pharmica (look that up in your Bible, for all the Christians going to doctors for their depression pills, and pain meds). Until we all eventually die just getting by or in debt.
Right now we just need to all be good mindless zombies for our state/government and applaud the ECSO efforts. *golf clap*
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 7
Election time must be just around the corner.
Too little, too late for this sheriff in my opinion.
With crime at an all time high in our area, I feel these assets/funds could be used for better purposes.
Speeding is illegal, drugs are illegal, killing is illegal, and so on, and so on.
This crud you all put in your bodies every day not only kills you but corrupt so
many in the process.
Why not try just walking the walk, including, obeying all our laws governing
the protection of all of us, and get off the sauce of any kind.
Who knows you might find life better in many ways, and I’m sure the people
around you would.
Love to see the comments from people who know little to nothing about the “drug war.” If we had a war that had so little impact and cost as much we’d have given up long ago.
Even if you don’t agree with the idea of smoking marijuana you can at least agree on some facts:
We spend approximately $44 Billion annually on the “war on drugs”
The potential for tax revenue from legal drugs would be approximately $33 Billion
Gang related crime and South American Drug Cartels would dry up almost over night.
So if we legalized drugs we’d end up with a country full of people who make their own choices (which they do now but we end up paying taxes to prevent it and not realizing any taxable revenue from it)
This isn’t about legalization, its about me not wanting to foot the bill for a war that has so clearly lost its ridiculous. Tax it and let people make their own choices so I can stop paying for crap that makes no sense
i absolutely support our ECSO and their ongoing attempts to irradicate all drugs that are, by LAW, illegal to consume/grow/possess/distribute…those of you that believe in legalizing pot are free to move to another state/country where the laws are different (if it really means that much to you) gee, doesnt that seem quite simple?- then, everyone can live happily ever after!……….from my own experiences ,involving one of my close family members, it definately served as a “gateway” drug to bigger, more addictive things….its an ongoing (often futile) challenge for our law enforcement officers and im very thankful for their tireless efforts…GOOD JOB!
Again everyone who wants to legalize pot,move to Colorado where for the price of a doctor visit you can get it prescribed legally! I wonder if the folks who are so quick to defend the smokeing of dope might be smokers themselves?I agree alcohol and tobacco can be as dangerous ,maybe worse than pot,but our laws are our laws and pot is illegal.I doubt alcohol and tobacco will ever be illegal bacause of the politics and big money there.Work to change the laws you don’t like (vote) or move to a country where you can abide by the laws with gripping.
@ Mr Reality…..so if the helo is flying over your house and you are being assaulted in the yard, not viewed from the front of the house….they should just fly on by? Really?
Hello all, just a short comment today…..it is illegal to grow these “weeds” whether you can see it from the road or the air. The law has to be upheld in all cases including murderers or hopheads.
Rather than make it legal and tax it, why don’t we just buy up the total supply of all illegal drugs and give it away for free. It costs us countless millions trying to keep drugs off the street. Just think of how much we could save by not fighting it. When a drug is illegal, the street value goes up. All the meth-heads and pot-heads could just chill all day and not have to rob folks to support their habit. Its not like they actually work anywhere, so the employer would not be affected.
End sarcasm.
The sherrif’s office is supposed to attempt to apprehend all criminals. It does not have the privilege to prioritize which criminals to go after first. Yes, there are crimes that are worse than others. There are always “armchair” folks who know a better way of doing things. Those who think you can do a better job, please run for Sherrif and “show us how its done”. End rant.
REGARDING:
“to fly over with a chopper makes it a warrentless search and seizure”
To fly over isn’t any kind of seizure.
Courts have already ruled regarding viewing from the air. There is no warrant requirement that people only look from a level location.
David in a fish bowl
First off it is “warrantless” not warrentless… Second, you/they have no expectation of privacy if it can be viewed from the sky… Think/know before you speak please… Don’t get mad at the ECSO for enforcing a law they didn’t create. Call your representatives and vote in new ones, if you do not like the law.
Some folks just love taxes
Man, that’s some pretty BUD’s. Make it legal and tax the crap out of it. Fed’s and States would come out of the red and we would have plenty of room to put these killers and child pedophiles in for life.
Oh and those plants couldn’t be seen from the front of the house, to fly over with a chopper makes it a warrentless search and seizure….
Unreal the cops wasted all this money for some pot plants. We have KILLERS walking the streets (see the kid who was killed at Dominos) yet we have the time and resources to go after some plants? End the war on drugs, open up space in prison for REAL CRIMINALS, and double the penalty’s for violent crimes. If we do this, we have space in the jail for the real criminals…The war on Drugs was over before it even started!
Meth is a very Nasty drug that is full of chemicals that are so bad it’s kinda hard to comprehend that Anybody would do such a thing. Pot is a natural herb that doesn’t have anywhere near the chemicals that a cigarette has added to it…comparing pot with meth is not right.
‘
Glad that they are finding all these’s drugs, meth labs and the plants. The more thay find, the better not only our young people but, the older ones that have smoked it for years and want to make it legal.
Its just pot…If they would just sell it like beer and cigs and tax it then our country would make so much money.
Get stoped with a can of beer full or half full and see what happens.THT LAW IS THE LAW.
Alcohol and tobacco are known to be leaders in the deaths of many people but they’re still available just about anywhere, arresting people for growing weeds in their backyards just doesn’t seem right.
All great plans of mice and men, often go astray.
>>>Also how is it that a 5 inch plant carries the same value as a 5 foot plant? Curious as to how they come up with these figures.
It was explained to me that a 5-inch plant and a 5-foot plant carry the same value under Florida law because the 5-inch plant has the same potential final street value as the mature plant. The law, I’m told, say they have an equal value for prosecution.
Glad to see that helicopter is doing something useful. I thought that Sheriff Morgan grounded it? How much money have they spent on fuel, maintenance, and pilot for these “routine missions?” Also how is it that a 5 inch plant carries the same value as a 5 foot plant? Curious as to how they come up with these figures.
As always…..”Imagine That”!!!!!!!!
Awesome the war on drugs is working… Let us arrest the scum and lock them up for life. Marijuana is corrupting and killing our youth, and is a gateway to meth and crack!
/end sarcasm