Campbell police seize 56 pot plants
By Joe Gorman
CAMPBELL
Charges are expected Monday after police served a search warrant at a city home and discovered a suspected marijuana-growing operation.
Police seized 56 marijuana plants from a home at 607 Devitt Ave., capping an investigation that began about a month ago, said police Lt. Kevin Sferra.
Besides the plants, officers serving the warrant also found a substantial amount of equipment used to grow the plants after they arrived about 7:30 a.m.
No guns or money were found, but street department trucks were used to haul away the equipment and the plants. Officers also dumped out several pots of soil the plants were packed in and seized items such as fertilizers, fans, portable heaters, insulation and batteries to power lights and other equipment.
Sferra said there was no doubt the equipment cost a lot of money, but with marijuana going anywhere from $100 to $500 an ounce depending on what type it is, the people operating the grow could make their money back in a hurry.
The plants found by police were 11/2 to 2 feet tall, Sferra said. He said they were not yet at the stage where they would be cultivated.
“The plants filled up a whole room,” Sferra said.
Sferra said it took most of Friday to log and store all the evidence taken from the home.
Police began watching the home after receiving several anonymous complaints about the activity there, Sferra said.
There was a man at the home when police arrived who was questioned by police during the search.
Devitt Avenue is also the street where the body of a woman was found in a freezer in July.
Facing charges of abuse of a corpse in the case are Arturo Novoa, 31, and Katrina Layton, 34, both of Mahoning Avenue, Youngstown. Police have not yet said how the woman died but they believe she was killed in Youngstown. The case is pending before a Mahoning County grand jury.
On Aug. 16, police charged a man at his Devitt Avenue home with 10 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a child after serving a search warrant at his home.