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Epsom News

Power drain leads to big pot bust

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

 

Police uncovered what’s believed to be the largest marijuana growing operation in state history when they found an estimated $4.2 million to $7 million worth of marijuana plants inside an upscale Epsom home.

Inside a five-bedroom home at 35 Woodcote Drive, police found 1,396 young marijuana plants along with about $200,000 worth of growing equipment including grow lights, irrigation equipment, fertilizer, fans and transformer boxes, police said.

As of press time, there were no arrests or arrest warrants related to the case.

State police, with assistance from the Epsom police and fire departments, first responded to the home at 35 Woodcote Drive on Thursday, Nov. 2, after complaints from neighbors about power problems resulting from a blown transformer.

A utilities crew notified police that power was being diverted to the house, said New Hampshire State Police Narcotics and Investigations Unit Sgt. Ellen Arcieri.

Arcieri said police first obtained a search warrant to investigate “theft of services” before finding the marijuana and supplies filling the five-bedroom home.

“We just kind of stumbled into it,” said Arcieri.

No one was home when police entered the house with a search warrant for the growing operation, and no one appeared to be living in the home, police said.

“There was no furniture or anything like that,” said Arcieri, “There was no one living there as far as we can see.”

Arcieri said new, unused growing equipment along with the young age of the plants suggested the growing operation was in its infancy.

Police said the home’s basement was set up to support 4,000 marijuana plants.

Each marijuana plant, state police said, could yield about $3,000 to $5,000 in street value worth of marijuana.

Arcieri said the size and scope of the operation suggest a highly organized effort from multiple people.

Just last month, Hooksett police uncovered what they’d believed to have been the largest marijuana growing operation in state history when they found about 780 marijuana plants strewn throughout a Hooksett home. Police later arrested 34- year-old Toan Nguyen, who’d owned the home since last April.

Arcieri said police had not made any link between the two growing operations as of Nov. 5.

Published Wednesday, November 08, 2006 1:20 PM by Hooksett Editor
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