Glen Cove Man Had Drug Stash, Hydroponic Pot Lab In Home: PD

GLEN COVE, NY — A 29-year-old man caught on Monday with a large amount of heroin and cocaine was cultivating over 100 hydroponic marijuana plants in an operation that was evolving inside his Glen Cove home, Det. Lt. John Nagle said.

Detectives executed a search warrant at the Eldridge Place home of Leo Duchnowski and found a large amount of heroin, cocaine, edible THC, and cash, as well about three pounds of marijuana, Nagle said. The basement and upper floor of the home had over 100 marijuana plants being cultivated “using sophisticated lights and hydroponics,” he said.

“It was turning into a large operation,” he said.

Duchnowski was arranging for some marijuana products to be shipped to him from out-of-state, as well as the packing materials, and he would either resell the products as is or package them himself, Nagle said.

He declined to say where the products were being shipped to, as well as how investigators were tipped off to Duchnowski’s activities, citing an ongoing joint investigation by the detective division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Nassau County District Attorney’s office.

“It’s a small community; people see things,” he said.

Duchnowski was released on parole in September following a nearly three-year stint in an upstate prison for drug dealing, according to the New York State Department of Corrections. He served out a similar sentence upstate between 2010 and 2013, records show.

Duchnowski was slapped with third-and fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and second-degree criminal possession of marijuana, all felonies, as well as seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday in First District Court in Hempstead. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in state prison.

Nagle said Glen Cove police will continue their “commitment to keep illegal drugs from entering our neighborhoods and target those who are introducing these drugs onto our community.”