heathaa, your post reminded me about this thing on saw on this law firm's website before:
The Unsophisticated "Grow House" is the Most Likely Target of Sting Operations
As information becomes more readily available on the internet about how to grow marijuana indoors, more amatures attempt a small unsophisticated operation for their own personal consumption. Those small unsophisticated marijuauna cultivations are the most likely type of "grow house" to be discovered by law enforcement officers in Tampa, Hillsborough County, and the surrounding areas of Clearwater and St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Bartow, Polk County, New Port Richey and Dade City, Pasco County.
Many of our clients have no criminal record. A serious drug accusation such as marijuana cultivation or trafficking can have serious collateral consequences which are most destructive to an individual with no criminal record who attempts a small cultivation of cannabis for personal consumption as a hobby or out of curiosity.
The larger grow house operations are more sophisticated, and less likely fall prey to the most common types of sting operations. How do law enforcement officers find marijuana grow house or cannabis cultivations operations in Florida?
- Law enforcement officers wait outside a hydroponic store and then follow home anyone who makes a purchase.
- Law enforcement officers set up a dummy on-line hydroponic store to gather information about citizens that visit the site to request additional information.
- A neighbor reports suspicious activity.
- A disgruntled employee, or unhappy former love interest can report their knowledge about the presence of marijuana in the home to the police.
- A confidential informant working for the police after their own arrest makes a tip to a law enforcement officer.
- Officers receive information about unusually high electric bills at a residence.
- Officers notice certain signs of the cannabis cultivation operation from the outside of the house, such as mold growing on the eaves, or usually wiring.
- The occupant of the house fails to put his trash at the curb for pick up which can raise an officer's suspension after they have begun surveillance on the house.
Officers have become increasing creative in finding indoor cultivation of marijuana operations in Florida, including using confidential informants working at hydroponic stores to gather information from customers. The law enforcement officers then use those leads to conduct surveillance on the individuals until they gather enough information to obtain an arrest or search warrant.
In other cases, the law enforcement officers simply conduct a "knock and talk" which involves a number of officers approaching the front door of a house in an attempt to gain "voluntary consent" to search the residence. Furthermore, law enforcement officers can search electric bills, or survey the outside of the home looking for any indications of indoor marijuana cultivation.
At the Sammis Law Firm, our attorneys focus on fighting marijuana and cannabis cultivation cases in the Tampa Bay area, including Hillsborough County, Polk County, Pasco County, Hernando County, Pinellas County, and Manatee County, FL. Contact a lawyer for any cannabis cultivation case in Florida to discuss defenses that may apply given the particular facts and circumstances of your case.