THOUSAND OAKS : $500,000 Crop of Marijuana Seized
Narcotics detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department seized $500,000 worth of marijuana plants and arrested the alleged grower during a drug bust Wednesday evening in the Santa Monica Mountains, authorities said.
Walter Rheo Vaughn, 48, was arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and released on his own recognizance, a Ventura County Jail spokeswoman said.
“He was very, very disappointed,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Arnie Aviles said. “He had a very big cash crop.”
The carefully tended crop of more than 200 plants would have been ready for harvest in three months, Aviles said.
The Sheriff’s Department received a tip last week that marijuana was being grown on the property in the 9900 block of Cotharin Road in an unincorporated area of the county southwest of Thousand Oaks, Aviles said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant and investigated the property Tuesday, Aviles said. He said the detectives photographed the 1,500-square-foot plot before pulling out all the plants. Some of the plants will be analyzed at a lab, and the rest will be destroyed, he said.
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