Marijuana Operation Raided; 3 Arrested

A small sophisticated indoor marijuana operation was raided at a house in north Ventura this week, and police seized about 3 pounds of packaged pot worth an estimated $12,000, authorities said Wednesday.

The raid followed a monthlong investigation of the activities at the four-bedroom house in the 900 block of High Point Drive, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Garcia.

Cameron Lynch, 21, who rents the house, and two of his friends, Adam Neary, 20, and Alan Turk, 27, were arrested during the Monday night raid, Garcia said. All three men are longtime Ventura residents, he said.

“These guys knew what they were doing. It wasn’t like ‘I’ll throw some seeds in my backyard and see what happens;’ they spent a lot of time on this,” Garcia said.

Turk and Neary were each released after posting $5,000 bonds. Both men had been jailed on suspicion of cultivating marijuana. Lynch was released after posting a $10,000 bond. He had been held on suspicion of cultivation and possession, Garcia said.

Charges had not been filed by the district attorney’s office by Wednesday, but Garcia said he expected to present his case this week. The men are tentatively scheduled to be arraigned Monday, the sergeant said.

The raid was considered significant because deputies seized 795 marijuana plants that, if they had been allowed to reach full size, could have yielded about $1 million of top-grade pot, Garcia said.

Deputies found the plants divided into two areas inside the master bedroom and a smaller bedroom, Garcia said. The crops were hydroponic, which means the plants had no soil and were given water and nutrients through a pumping system, Garcia said.

Also seized were lights, fans, carbon dioxide generators and other equipment stored in closets and worth about $15,000, Garcia said.

It was unknown where the drugs where being distributed or whether the owner of the home knew about the operation, Garcia said. The operation had been in existence several months, he added.