The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has uncovered an elaborate marijuana growing operation in a home west of Centralia that included approximately 700 plants.
Investigators acted on a tip from the Lewis County Public Utilities District, which reported a neighbor’s complaint about low voltage at a home on the 100 block of Davis Hill Road east of North Pearl Street outside Centralia city limits.
It was determined that someone was stealing power by splicing into electric lines and bypassing the meter, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies executed a search warrant on the home at 5:40 p.m. Monday. No arrests have been made, Sheriff Steve Mansfield said. The owner currently lives in Olympia, and investigators are not sure if anyone was living at the home at the time, he said.
“It looks like they’re staying here to take care of the plants, not necessarily living there,” said Sheriff’s Office Patrol Commander Steve Aust.
An area spanning the bottom of the house had been excavated and equipped with an air circulation system, watering devices and several custom-fitted transformers. Three separate rooms held approximately 700 plants at various stages of development. Dozens of bags of potting soil were stacked next to five-gallon buckets used to grow the plants.
A charcoal filtering system moved fumes through the house from the basement, Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber said.
That number of plants is preliminary, Mansfield said, as a precise hand count had not been conducted. Members of the Lewis County Crime Task Force were taking inventory of the items this morning in an operation Mansfield expects to continue in the coming days.
Electric lines leading to a circuit box in the excavated crawl space seemingly taunted authorities. Names like Lucy, Dick and Jack were scrawled on the electrical lines leading to the box, while one line included the word “Free!”
“That will come up in court,” Mansfield said. “They will learn from their mistakes, and hopefully spend some time in jail.”
Mansfield said there have been no arrests, but said investigators are continuing to work on the case. He said the house would be seized, along with anything used in the operation, and could eventually be sold with the money going to the sheriff’s office whether or not there is an arrest. The marijuana will be incinerated, he said.
Another sign posted near the entry way to a growing room indicated that it was a legal medical marijuana operation, and implored would-be investigators to post any search warrants on the wall.
Mansfield, Aust and Seiber obliged Tuesday, posting the search warrant just below the makeshift sign.
Mansfield said the amount of marijuana in the home far exceeded amounts allowed for a licensed medical marijuana grower. Aust said plants are normally valued at $2,000 per plant, but the actual amount varies depending on the size and maturity of each stalk.
Mansfield said the marijuana is worth roughly $500,000, though that sum could change as investigators continue working on the case.
“This is the direction we need to go,” Mansfield said. “Not legalizing and not taxing it.”
•••
Eric Schwartz: (360) 807-8245
