Saturday, February 28, 2004
The marijuana was burned at an incinerator in East Liverpool.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Businessman Joseph Pedaline, once part-owner of the B & amp;O Microbrewery and Restaurant, wasn't in town to see the Drug Enforcement Administration task force haul away thousands of marijuana plants from a warehouse he owns.
Pedaline is out of the country, in Belize, Jeffrey L. Chagnot, the city's development director, said Friday. "He goes there every January and February," Chagnot said.
DEA agents spent Friday dismantling the enormous indoor marijuana farm that operated out of Pedaline's warehouse at 814 Marshall St., in the Mahoning Commons neighborhood near downtown. Pedaline has not been charged with any crime.
Although Mahoning County records show that Pedaline bought the warehouse last month, Chagnot said Pedaline and his partner had it for several years. Chagnot said it's likely that last month's sale reflects Pedaline's buying his partner out.
The sale price of $40,000 reflects half the building's market worth, records show.
Chagnot said that, a few years ago, Pedaline "talked to me about that building on Marshall Street. He said that it was available to lease if anyone needed space."
Chagnot said Pedaline sold his interest in the B & amp;O Microbrewery and Restaurant last summer to his partner in the business, Robert Arroyo. It opened in June 2002, after extensive renovations to the building that last operated as a restaurant in 1996.
Plants incinerated
DEA Special Agent Douglas Lamplugh, head of the Youngstown office, said Friday that the 3,850 pot plants found in seven rooms in the warehouse had to be placed in boxes for disposal at the WTI incinerator in East Liverpool late Friday night. Samples of the plants were taken earlier to be tested.
The DEA has said the marijuana factory is possibly the second largest ever found, with the largest being in California.
Lamplugh said the task force would be at the warehouse today to take out the grow lights and to dismantle other equipment, such as the sophisticated watering system.
DEA search warrants have been used at one residence in Brookfield, where 116 pot plants were found, and at least two residences in Youngstown, Lamplugh said. No arrests have been made and the investigation continues.
The high-grade marijuana in the warehouse would have a street value of $1,500 to $2,500 per pound. One plant generally yields one pound, Lamplugh has said.
Calculating 3,850 pounds at $1,500 to $2,500, that's $5.7 to $9.6 million street value, which Lamplugh has said are "good numbers." The marijuana found was in various stages of growth, from seedlings to mature plants.
meade@vindy.com