Pasco Deputies Find Grow House Used To Produce 150 Pounds Pot

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — Two New Port Richey men have been arrested after being accused of stealing nearly $11,000 in electricity to run a marijuana grow house that produced more than 150 pounds of marijuana.

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office was tipped off about a rental property at 6247 Aberdeen Avenue being used to grow marijuana on Oct. 25 while investigating the theft of a car from Enterprise Rent-A-Car at 12312 U.S. 19, rented by Alexey Del Pino Rodriguez, 36.

During the investigation, deputies confronted Rodriguez and Geikel Lopez Suarez, 34, about using the home they were renting to grow marijuana.

The two men agreed to a search of the home. Deputies found two bedrooms used to cultivate marijuana that were in the process of being dismantled, marijuana plants that had been cut down and marijuana buds in the process of being dried and packaged.

In all, the sheriff's office recovered 28 marijuana root balls weighing 16 pounds that had been pulled from the soil, garbage bags containing cut stalks, stems and leaves weighing 62 pounds, and 74 pounds of marijuana buds (flowers).

A Duke Energy worker who checked the home's electrical use calculated that, between Nov. 1 and 22, $10,809.26 worth of electricity had been illegally diverted to the grow operation.

Both men were charged with growing marijuana and grand theft of electricity.