More than 400 pounds of pot found in home
Arrest part of indoor cannabis growing investigation.
WELLINGTON — Palm Beach Count y Sheriff ’s offic ials found more than 400 pounds of marijuana this month in a Wellington home.
The sheriff ’s office had been surveying the home on Primrose Lane, southwest of Greenview Shores Boulevard, as part of an indoor cannabis grow laboratory investigation.
An agent approached Maria Rodriguez, 53, the morning of Feb. 1 as she backed out of the garage, records show. The smell of marijuana coming from her and the car was overwhelming, according to a sheriff ’s office report.
Officials, who obtained a warrant, searched the home in Sugar Pond Manor and found multiple rooms converted into grow labs, complete with artificial lights, reflective material on the walls and a revamped air conditioning system.
T h i r t y - f o u r c a n n a b i s plants “heavily laden with cannabis buds ... ready for harvest” were in the home, sheriff ’s office records state. Twenty additional plants, all very young, were found.
The sheriff ’s office seized nearly 400 pounds of marijuana plants and more than 30 pounds of processed marijuana.
Rodriguez faces drug trafficking and cannabis manufacturing charges. Records i n d i c a t e h e r p e r manent address is in Miami, though she had been living in the Wellington home.
She is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail on a $23,000 bond.