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Pinellas Drug Sting Nets 18 Grow Houses, 18 Arrests

News Channel 8 photo by KATY HENNIG

Law enforcement officials hold a news conference in Pinellas County detailing Operation Family Tree.

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Published: August 21, 2008

Updated: 08/21/2008 05:03 pm

CLEARWATER - After a monthslong investigation prompted by an anonymous tip, authorities today swooped down on 18 marijuana grow houses they say were coordinated by one man.

Eighteen people were arrested and about $31,000 was seized, said Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. Detectives also dismantled the operations, confiscating more than 850 plants along with humidifiers, air conditioners, lamps and filtration systems used to grow them.

Among other items taken was a copy of the magazine "High Times" that has an article on how to build a low-budget grow-room

Federal search warrants were executed at three homes in Clearwater, three in Tarpon Springs, three in Dunedin, three in Palm Harbor and one in St. Petersburg. At five other homes, narcotics detectives knocked on doors and were let inside by the occupants, said Lt. Robert Alfonso of the sheriff's narcotics division.

Joseph Maglione, 52, and his wife, Susan, 60, live at one of the Clearwater homes, 810 Lake Forest Road. Joseph Maglione coordinated activities among the 18 addresses that were targeted in the investigation, and he and the other seventeen people arrested today are expected to be charged federally.

The operation was given the name Operation Family Tree because many of the suspects are related by blood or marriage or were friends. A father and daughter oversaw one operation, and a man, wife and son were involved in at least one other, narcotics detectives said.

The anonymous tip came in by telephone through Crime Stoppers, said authorities, who would say nothing more about the tip. The tipster was given a code number and could qualify for a reward of up to $1,000 if he or she comes forward, sheriff's officials said.

Detectives eventually "uncovered a network … of family members who decided to work this countywide," said Capt. Mike Platt of the sheriff's narcotics squad. "This is not an isolated case where people decide to grow some pot plants in their house."

Rental homes were used for the grow operations, he said. Some were found today to contain as few as 23 plants; some had up to 100. Investigators say the coordinated effort annually could have produced a harvest worth more than $4 million.

One of the houses raided is at 1551 Georgia Ave. in Palm Harbor. Unmarked vehicles pulled up, and men dressed in white went inside, said Ellen Maracotta, a neighbor and schoolteacher who saw this as she left for work in Pasco County.

"This is the second time in five years we have had a grow house within steps of my house, and I am sick of it," she said. Both grow houses were rental properties, she said.

"There must be a lot of them out there," Maracotta said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com.

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