300 lbs. of pot seized from grow houses
More than 300 pounds of marijuana with a street value of about $800,000 were confiscated in a bust of six residences in the towns of Marlborough and Newburgh that largely had been converted into indoor grow houses, Ulster County Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum said Wednesday.
There has been one arrest in connection with the operation and several more are anticipated, officials said.
Joseph I. Arredondo-Alarcon, 34, of 216 Bingham Road, Marlborough, was arrested by investigators during a traffic stop June 7 on the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. He was charged with felony possession of marijuana and was being held in the Ulster County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of $15,000 bail.
VanBlarcum said the grow operations were likely to have been operating for “several years” and that authorities have potentially shut a “significant” down source of marijuana in the Hudson Valley.
Arredondo-Alarcon’s arrest followed a fire about 1:25 p.m. June 6 at 212 Bingham Road in Marlborough during which “police and firefighters quickly determined that the entire residence had been converted to an indoor marijuana growing and processing operation,” according to a press release about the case.
Marlborough Police Chief Gerald Cocozza said the fire began in the basement and spread to the eaves and the attic.
Ulster County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Dirk Budd said only about 25 percent the evidence burned in the fire and that no one was in the building at the time.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday at the Ulster County Law Enforcement Center, VanBlarcum, who is up for reelection in November, said Marlborough police at the scene of the fire asked for assistance from the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team (URGENT) and the Sheriff’s Office once they realized the structure’s use. URGENT, which includes special agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Sheriff’s Office detectives quickly determined a neighboring residence on the property also housed an indoor marijuana-growing operation, the sheriff said. In the following days, search warrants were executed at 212, 216 and 260 Bingham Road in Marlborough, 110 Lyons Lane in Marlborough, and 17 and 23 Bright Star Drive in the town of Newburgh, and marijuana was confiscated at all the locations, VanBlarcum Budd said said. investigators believe the five residences in Marlborough are owned by the same person, but he declined to identify the owner or say whether the properties belong to Arrendondo-Alarcon.
VanBlarcum said the residences were large, singlefamily structures, three of which had been converted to facilitate the marijuana operation on all floors. The sheriff said all three were running on stolen electricity.
Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. disconnected the power, he said.
Evidence located at the homes included more than 300 pounds of marijuana, both processed and unprocessed; grow lights, blowers, filters, ballasts and fertilizer; drug-packaging materials and scales; and countersurveillance equipment, authorities said.
A preliminary investigation of the fire found the likely origin was an electric motor in one of the ventilation systems constructed as part of the grow operation, Cocozza said.