Arrest made in ongoing marijuana investigation
A Marlborough woman faces charges stemming from an investigation into a marijuanagrowing operation.
A Marlborough woman has been arrested by the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team on felony drug charges in connection with a June drug bust that netted more than 300 pounds of marijuana.
Authorities said Saturday that they arrested Leslie A. Roman, 37, of 212, Bingham Road, Marlborough, on July 6, and charged her with two felony counts of criminal possession of marijuana. Additional charges are pending, they said.
Ulster County sheriff’s deputies said she was sent to the Ulster County jail, but jail officials said she was not being held in the jail as of Sunday afternoon.
After a fire at 212 Bingham Road the afternoon of June 6, authorities determined that the home had been converted to an indoor marijuana-growing operation. Police said only about 25 percent of the evidence burned in the fire, which had started in the basement and ultimately spread to the eaves and attic.
Authorities said the fire was determined to have started in an electric motor of one the blowers used in the grow house, and no was in the home at the time.
Following the fire, Joseph I Arredondo-Alarcon, 34, of 216 Bingham Road, was arrested by investigators during a June 7 traffic stop 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.
Authorities estimated the marijuana, which was also found in five other homes converted to grow houses in the towns of Marlborough and Newburgh, had a street value of about $800,000.
Police said they executed search warrants 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,
In addition to 300 pounds of marijuana, both processed and unprocessed, investigators discovered grow lights, blowers, filters, ballasts and fertilizer; drug-packaging materials and scales; and countersurveillance equipment, authorities said.