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A Tale Of Two Grow Houses

Hernando Today photo by BOB EAST III

A deputy inspects marijuana plants as another carries out two more.

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By KYLE MARTIN Hernando Today

Published: December 11, 2007

SPRING HILL - When a good stiff breeze blew through this middle-class neighborhood, residents got a strong whiff of something.

It smelled like marijuana.

The people who live on Chamber Court, near Springwood Drive, suspected it was coming from the tan house that sat on the north-east corner of those two streets.

"Every couple of weeks a different person lived there," Danielle Oden said Tuesday morning about 4490 Chamber Crt., the house directly across the street from hers.

Besides foot traffic at all hours of the night, the BMW sports car that occasionally parked in the driveway immediately attracted attention.

Three houses to the east, 4456 Chamber Crt., was also coming under scrutiny by the neighbors. Like Oden, Orlando Torres lives across the street and had his own theories about what was going on.

After doing a little Internet research, two telltale signs of a grow house caught his attention: no trash by the curb and some heat lamps that were set outside.

"People would just show up for five minutes, just in and out," Torres said.

Apparently, detectives with the sheriff's office were putting the pieces together, too.

Around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, two big moving trucks and a horde of SWAT team members rolled up on Chamber Court, an unremarkable street off Landover Boulevard. A similar raid was underway at 9107 Spring Hill Drive.

"It looked like an army running down the street," said Carmela Cerrone, who lives with Torres.

With 30 seconds of the concussion from two stun grenades, the raid was over. Hours of dismantling equipment and evidence collection lay ahead.

By mid-morning, more than 10 deputies in jeans and black T-shirts were coming in and out of the corner house with bundles of marijuana in each hand. Dirt still clung to the three-foot stalks, so they beat the plants against a magnolia tree in the front yard to loosen the soil.

The sight of some deputies in white protective jumpsuits and gas masks made some worry that a methamphetamine laboratory had been bubbling in the backyard. But Capt. Michael Maurer explained that growers are increasingly using dangerous chemicals to treat their plants and it can pose a toxic hazard.

As media reporters plied the streets talking with neighbors, a suspect sat in the back seat of an idling cruiser and watched thousands of dollars worth of marijuana pile up in a heap. Authorities announced only one arrest, though others are anticipated.

Charged with cultivation of marijuana, grand theft and theft of services is Carlos Valle-Perez, 48.

Though the houses were practically next door to each other, investigators believe these operations were unrelated.

Sgt. James Terry, with the sheriff's Vice and Narcotics Division, said most of this pot was not intended for local consumption, but destined for Miami and New York.

All told, investigators said they collected 37 marijuana plants from 4456 Chamber Crt.; 271 plants at 4490 Chamber Crt.; and 73 plants at 9107 Spring Hill Drive.

"It's nice to see them cleaning up our streets," Cerrone said.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com

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