Deputies seize $350,000 worth of pot from warehouse

By Jerry Salley  

APRIL 26, 2012 11:38 a.m. (4)

A large indoor marijuana growing facility containing hundreds of plants with an estimated street value of more than $350,000 is what deputies from the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office discovered while looking into a case of electrical current theft.

On Monday morning at 11:00 a.m., the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office received a call for service at 208 Old Piedmont Highway, according to Deputy Laura Campbell, the GCSO’s public information officer. Duke Energy requested the Sheriff’s Office’s assistance in regard to the theft of electrical current.

At the scene, deputies found unauthorized electrical lines running from a power transformer to a warehouse located on the back of the property. While following the lines to the building, deputies found a broken window and smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside. Deputies entered the premises to investigate further and found a quantity of marijuana plants inside.

The Uniform Patrol then backed out of the building and secured a perimeter, said Campbell. The Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant for the property and called in the Vice and Narcotics Unit and S.W.A.T. team. S.W.A.T. then re-entered and secured the buildings and the investigation and subsequent clean-up began.

Investigators found several rooms containing various stages of marijuana plant growth in the warehouse, Campbell said. In total, the GCSO seized 678 individual marijuana plants, she said.

No persons or suspects were found at the scene, Campbell said. The investigation is ongoing.