Documents: Detectives link garden shop worker to marijuana operation

When Pinellas County sheriff's narcotics investigators raided a Palm Harbor property in February, they found what they thought were some interesting fingerprints on a grow light suspended over some marijuana plants inside.

They belonged to Scott Norman, 41, an employee of Simply Hydroponics, a specialty gardening store in Largo, according to court documents made available this month.

Part-owner Allan Bednar said it wouldn't be unusual for an employee's fingerprints to turn up on lights designed for an inside plant growing operation, whether the operation is illegal or not.

After all, Simply Hydroponics employees often assemble the lights before a customer carts them away for whatever use, he said. And, he said, his own fingerprints have shown up on lights at marijuana grow operations.

But undercover narcotics detectives kept investigating.

They knew Norman had been arrested in 2005, after authorities raided a Largo property and found 58 plants inside they said he was growing. At the time, Norman was an employee of Simply Hydroponics, Bednar said, and he was allowed to return to his job once he completed a short jail term.

Also, two years ago, a confidential informant was sent into Simply Hydroponics, to chat up employees, and he and Norman discussed various strains of marijuana and the troubles associated with those strains, court documents say.

Norman was recorded saying, "I'd help someone for free just to help them out, but they want to pay thousands of dollars," the documents say. Detectives inferred that Norman was willing to help people grow marijuana and receive payment for doing so, the documents say.

Then, in March of last year, detectives arrested a one-time employee at Simply Hydroponics - identified in court documents as Stephen Weintraub, 25 - on charges Weintraub was growing marijuana plants at a property in St. Petersburg.

Bednar confirmed Weintraub was a former employee, and said Weintraub was fired a few years ago for not being very energetic.

Detectives started keeping an eye on Norman, and found he repeatedly went to 12890 Starkey Road, No. 5, after he finished his shift at Simply Hydroponics, the documents say. They found power usage there was roughly four times greater than neighboring, similar properties, a tell-tale sign of a grow operation. And on May 26, a deputy pulled Norman over for a traffic infraction, and smelled marijuana on him, the documents say.

On May 27, detectives raided the property and found 81 plants, and Norman was arrested the next day on charges of manufacturing and trafficking in marijuana. After he made bail, he returned to work, and will be allowed to remain until the charges are disposed of, Bednar said.

Bednar, for now, is standing by Norman.

"He's grade A," Bednar said. "One of the best people in the world."

"At the moment we're trying to find out what happens with this case," Bednar said. He said, as far as he knew, a friend of Norman was involved in whatever was going on, at the Starkey Road property.

Bednar admitted he didn't run criminal background checks on either Norman or Weintraub, but the store has been prepared to run such checks on prospective employees over the last six months. There just haven't been any openings.

For some time, undercover narcotics had been watching cars come and go at Simply Hydroponics, and, according to court documents, often checked out who was driving. Sometimes, these license plate checks led to properties where marijuana was being grown, documents say.

When The Tampa Tribune first learned of the investigatory technique, and reported it in a story that appeared in October, Bednar said the business was being stereotyped and pigeonholed.

But Capt. Robert Alfonso, of the narcotics division, said the more recent allegation against Norman "sheds a different light on it."

"These particular people were never targeted," Alfonso said of Norman and Weintraub.

"The facts are what they are. All we do is follow the facts."

"It's a small world."