Editor’s Note: In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. This week’s feature is from PoliceOne Member Don Redfield, who sent us this story when we asked recently about the ‘one big break’ P1 Members had in an investigation. Do you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members? Send us an e-mail with your story.
By Don Redfield
Police1 Member
A little bit of information, some perseverance, and a little lucky timing led to dismantling a marijuana growing ring starting on a farm outside a North Central Washington city. Starting with a scant tip and nothing else, my first big indoor marijuana investigation went from almost zero to a very successful conclusion.
While assigned to a regional drug task force an anonymous tip was forwarded to me concerning a location where an unnamed subject was growing marijuana indoors for ten years. There was no information on who to call back for any additional data. This unremarkable information was a very thin start, which hardly seemed to merit much more than a glance. I set the tip information aside in favor of doing other more workable cases.
About three weeks after getting the tip the rush of work activity, which had previously kept me too busy to look into it, had now slowed. I turned back to the tip and started to develop any information related to it that might make it worthwhile. I honestly wasn’t expecting much. First I was able to determine who the property owner was. The subjects at the property had no criminal history and therefore added nothing to any reasonable suspicions which might support the alleged activity.
It wasn’t looking good, but I went ahead and I made a check of the power records looking back over the previous ten years. The records were indicative of some type of spike in the power usage nearly ten years before and it was a constant usage level up to the present. This spike might have been easily explained away without further information. Was there a glimmer of hope? Yes, but there just wasn’t enough to support probable cause for a search warrant.
I took a drive and looked at the location. It was a nice old farm house with a garage and guest house and a large barn. It appeared like many other rural area farms with nothing visible to suggest any illegal activities. I did notice that there was a fenced pasture next door and it had a for sale sign.
With an opportunity having presented itself to use a ruse with which to contact my subjects, I made my way to their front door. I knocked on the door and heard some movement inside. A man answered the door and we talked about the property for sale next door. During the conversation the smell of marijuana was obvious to me. Now I had some convincing circumstances and the smell of marijuana. Now I could prepare an affidavit for a search warrant.
A search warrant was secured and a raid put together. We arrived at the house and knocked on the door again. I again spoke with the same man. He was told why we were there and he proceeded to tell me a story.
Nearly ten years ago, my subject had returned home to his mother and step-father’s farm house. He noted that his step-father did not seem to be using the large barn on the property. He approached him with a request to use the barn to store some items for a friend. To compensate his step-father for the use of the storage space in the barn, he offered to pay the power bill. His step-father gladly accepted and he unwittingly provided the space for the indoor marijuana grow and also had managed to get himself excluded from learning about it through his power bill. The subject kept the storage area secured and managed to get the power bill before anyone else could review it. He never missed paying the bill. All went pretty well for nearly a decade.
Through a series of events, the step-father became aware of just what was going on in his barn. He, of course, demanded that this illegal activity be stopped and removed from his property. The subject complied and began dismantling his indoor grow operation that had provided him an income of nearly $50,000 annually. He no longer had to hide what he was doing from his parents and moved the final packaging operation into the house. On the very day I had come to the house, and smelled the marijuana, it was the first day any marijuana had been brought into the house. A stroke of luck in timing led to his arrest and conviction.
On the day we served the search warrant the subject had already put all the grow equipment into a truck he had purchased from his profits. He also had a car which he used to deliver marijuana to his buyers. This resulted in the fastest search warrant I have ever served for any indoor marijuana grow I had worked prior or since. We hauled his packaged marijuana out. We started up the car and the truck and drove to the department and were basically in and out in about 30 minutes.
This subject had involvement with two other indoor grow operations in two other counties, which he told me about. These grows were also dismantled through cooperation of the local law enforcement agencies involved. The marijuana he was packaging was destined to be delivered to a couple of buyers, with whom we then set up sting operations and made a few more arrests and seizures.
A tip, some perseverance and a stroke of luck in timing and there you have it. A day either way would have left me little or nothing to go on, but instead, a success story.
