Home » News » Crime » Over 50 pounds of marijuana seized from Fort Myers grow house
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Multiple community tips from concerned neighbors led to the discovery of a marijuana grow house in Fort Myers and an arrest.
Since November of last years, The Lee County Sheriff’s Office had received multiple crime stopper tips for the home located at 1631 Park Meadows Drive in Fort Myers. The tips stated that there was constant vehicle and pedestrian traffic into the home.
It became obvious to many of Vargas’ neighbors that he was operating a grow house late last year. The second story sliding glass door of the townhome had tin foil tucked into its seam.
“My son said it was an HVAC or something system for air but what they were doing was using it for reversal to bring the heat in,” said neighbor, Dawn Grimm
The LCSO Narcotics Unit began conducting an undercover surveillance of the residence and its occupant Javier Alejandro Vargas on Wednesday.
Around 2:30pm, Vargas was seen entering the property and around nine minutes later was found leaving the property with a gray shopping bag.
After failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, deputies were able to pull his vehicle over and conduct a traffic stop. After detecting a strong odor of marijuana, detectives asked Vargas to exit the vehicle. Detectives were then able to see the shopping bag, which contained marijuana and a large sum of cash.
Following the traffic stop, LCSO received a warrant to search Vargas’ home. Inside detectives were able to discover 28 mature marijuana plants, 34 juvenile marijuana plants and multiple THC products.
The total weight from the items seized was 56.4 pounds in marijuana plants.
Grimm watched from her balcony as LCSO’s Narcotics Unit raided the townhome Wednesday afternoon. She said, “It was kind of weird but kind excited like ‘oh my god. This is all happening right here’. Like you see this on TV but to be across the street and not even know.”
Detectives also found multiple open dangerous chemicals scattered around, gas torches, and extension cords running throughout the house. It was determined the residence was hot habitable and was only used for the manufacture and packaging of marijuana.
Vargas was arrested and faces charges of producing marijuana, possessing marijuana, and trafficking marijuana.
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Copyright © 2022 Waterman Broadcasting of Florida, LLC