150 Pot Plants Found In Brandon Home

BRANDON, FL — A 30-year-old Brandon man faces a list of criminal charges after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies searched his home Thursday evening.

According to the sheriff’s office, detectives obtained a search warrant to check out the home at 3818 Southview Drive following an investigation. When they searched that home just before 10 p.m. Thursday, they found “two rooms converted for the sole purpose of cultivating marijuana,” an email from the agency said.

Inside those rooms, detectives found 150 mature plants, the email said. The also discovered an illegal electrical connection to the home. TECO was called out and estimated electrical theft in the amount of $8,500, the sheriff's office said.

The marijuana found in the home weighed about 360 pounds, the email noted. That gives it an estimated street value of $614,000.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez was arrested during the operation. He faces such charges as trafficking in marijuana, manufacturing marijuana, own/lease/rent for the purposes of trafficking and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Rodriguez was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail.

Photos courtesy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

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