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Highlands Today

Two men, 2 women arrested in grow house bust

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By BRAD DICKERSON

Highlands Today

Published: June 9, 2009

LAKE PLACID - A weekend grow house bust in Lake Placid led to the arrest of four Sarasota residents.

Bismayda Francisco-Camac, 42, Guillermo Alejai Gomez-Dominguez, 33, Alejandro Felipe Quintana, 49, and Llanet Ramos-Acosta, 25, were all charged with trafficking in marijuana, production of marijuana, possession of a structure used to manufacture a controlled substance with knowledge of a minor being present, child neglect without great harm and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Quintana was additionally charged with resisting an officer without violence. He remained in jail Monday on a $42,000 bond. The three other suspects were also still in custody on a $41,500 bond each.

On Saturday at approximately 12:20 a.m., deputies with the Highlands County Sheriff's Office served a search warrant at a Cedarbrook Street home in Lake Placid. The four suspects were at the residence at the time law enforcement arrived, as was a 6-year-old girl who was asleep in a bedroom, according to the arrest report.

Across from the sleeping child, authorities reportedly found a room containing an active marijuana grow. Several other rooms also allegedly held either active grows or items used in a grow operation.

Those items included 1,000-watt grow lights, irrigation systems, an electric system made from extension cords, timers, outlets, an air conditioning system and numerous fertilizers, the report stated.

There were allegedly 51 live plants found in the home, as well as 22 additional plants that had been cut and hung to dry.

"Those were fully bloomed," said Capt. Randy LaBelle, with the sheriff's office, about the latter plants.

The 73 marijuana plants weighed approximately 272.75 pounds.

One of the suspects, Quintana, allegedly ran out the back door of the house when investigators arrived, according to LaBelle.

A tracking dog and a patrol dog were both utilized and Quintana was found within 50 feet of the home, in an area LaBelle compared to a swamp.

"You could barely walk in it," he said. "It was like a bog."

LaBelle added there was evidence in the area that led detectives to think it was a place where the suspects dumped older grow materials.

"We could see the dirt and other evidence back there," he said.

The four individuals were also the first in Highlands County to be charged with possession of a structure used to manufacture a controlled substance with knowledge of a minor being present, according to LaBelle.

This Florida statute states that, "a person who is in actual or constructive possession of a place, structure, trailer or conveyance with the knowledge that (it) ... is being used to manufacture a controlled substance intended for sale or distribution to another and who knew or should have known that a minor is present or resides in the place ... commits a felony of the first degree."

State statutes for 2008 list the punishment for a first-degree felony as no more than 30 years in prison or, when specifically provided by statute, imprisonment not exceeding a life sentence. A fine would also not exceed $10,000.

Highlands Today reporter Brad Dickerson can be reached at (863) 386-5838 or bdickerson@highlandstoday.com

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