DA’s drug task force busts pot-growing operation in Penn Hills

Police on Thursday night busted a major marijuanagrowing operation in a senior citizen’s basement in Penn Hills, seizing guns, cash and hundreds of pot plants estimated to be worth a half-million dollars on the street.

The 66-year-old homeowner, Kenneth Creekmore, who is facing drug charges, told authorities he was selling the marijuana to people who needed it for medical purposes and to make extra money, according to a criminal complaint.

Mr. Creekmore is not authorized to sell medical marijuana, the complaint said.

Reached at home Friday morning, Mr. Creekmore said, “I got nothing to say. I don’t know anything.”

Asked how all the marijuana plants got in his house, he said, “No comment. Bye,” and hung up on a reporter.

Authorities will charge Mr. Creekmore by summons with running the operation out of the basement of his home in the 5800 block of Heberton Drive.

He is facing two felony counts — of manufacturing and possession with intent to deliver — and a misdemeanor count of prohibited acts.

“This is the biggest indoor grow operation that we have confiscated” in the roughly 15-year history of the District Attorney Narcotics Enforcement Team, Mike Manko, spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, said Friday.

Police from Penn Hills, North Versailles and Swissvale, along with detectives from the DA’s office and agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration, executed a search warrant and seized about 750 suspected marijuana plants worth $500,000 in street value, Mr. Manko said.

Also confiscated were dozens of weapons and thousands of dollars in cash.

A copy of the search warrant inventory listing what was taken was not available.

Mr. Manko declined comment on the guns and cash.

Authorities were pleased enough with the haul that they put a sample on display for the media at the North Versailles police station.

In the criminal complaint, police said they had gotten a tip about the grow operation and prepared Thursday to do a “knock and talk.”

They ended up not needing to knock.

When detectives arrived at the home on Heberton, Mr. Creekmore was in the driveway trimming his lawn.

Detectives said they could smell marijuana, and it got stronger the closer they got to Mr. Creekmore’s house and open garage door.

Mr. Creekmore cooperated and “spoke freely with investigators regarding his cultivating and selling marijuana,” the complaint said.

“According to Creekmore, he was selling marijuana to people who need it for medical purposes and in order to make supplemental income for himself.”

As Mr. Creekmore was talking, police said, he ushered investigators into his basement, showing them an “elaborate” growing operation with specialized lighting and “buckets modified for continuous watering of the plants,” the complaint said.

Upstairs, police said they found dozens of jars containing different strains of marijuana ready for sale. In a back room, according to the complaint, there were metal wires strung with drying pot plants.

Also on the main floor were containers with marijuana resin, oil, smaller pot plants and different types of seeds for cultivation purposes, the complaint said.

The grow lights were wired to a generator inside a soundproofed shed in the backyard, according to police.

Detectives opted to charge Mr. Creekmore by summons because of unspecified medical issues. Online court records do not show any criminal history for him in Pennsylvania.