3 charged with growing, trafficking hydroponic marijuana
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Law enforcement officers have arrested three people, charging them with trafficking marijuana allegedly grown at 330 Golf Course Road in Tallapoosa and 167 Maggie's Point in Dallas. Officers seized about 40 pounds of hydroponic marijuana and more than 2,225 plants.
Enforcement actions by the Tallapoosa Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Paulding County Sheriff’s Office and the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force have led to the arrest of three individuals and the discovery of a major indoor grow operation.
On the morning of Oct. 14, members of the Tallapoosa PD and the DEA executed a search warrant at a commercial building at 330 Golf Course Road in Tallapoosa, Haralson County, while members of the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force conducted surveillance at 124 Lake Tanisha Drive in Dallas.
Once inside the Tallapoosa warehouse, officers and agents discovered the remains of a major indoor grow operation. Agents seized several ounces of marijuana, along with other items used in the cultivation of hydroponic marijuana.
The indoor grow utilized eight 500-gallon water containers, which cycled the water to various rooms where the marijuana was being grown.
Each room contained tables for the marijuana, and each table was equipped to handle the water from the pumps that were cycled through clay pellets, which held the plants. The entire operation was done hydroponically, with no soil involved.
During the surveillance of 124 Lake Tanisha Drive, agents arrested Loreen Marie Hobdy, 37, as she left the residence. Shortly after that, agents arrested Judd Alexander Hobdy, 34, and Richard Carl Fata, 41, as they left the residence. Inside the truck, agents seized about 10 pounds of hydroponic marijuana believed to have been grown in the Tallapoosa operation.
Later, agents executed a search warrant on the Hobdy residence at 124 Lake Tanisha Drive and seized about 10 pounds of marijuana, along with nine marijuana plants.
Information gathered from the search on Lake Tanisha Drive led agents to execute a search warrant at 167 Maggie’s Point in Dallas. This residence was also equipped as a hydroponic grow operation.
At that location, agents seized about 20 pounds of hydroponic marijuana, along with 385 plants. The residence was in a subdivision, but there was no furniture there and no one lived at the residence.
On Oct. 15, agents executed another search warrant in Temple and seized another 1,940 plants.
The Hobdys and Fata have all been charged with trafficking marijuana and other drug charges. Warrants have been issued for Jason Henry Pimentel, 31, who agents believe has now fled to Florida and is actually being sought by Florida authorities.
Law enforcement officials believe the marijuana produced in the operation was being shipped to south Florida for resale.
Anyone with additional information concerning the activities of the Hobdys and Pimentel or with other additional drug information is encouraged to call the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force at 770-646-9175.
There is a multi-million dollar yearly drug trade INSIDE our prison system. If prohibition doesn't work in prison it certainly will NEVER succeed outside prison.
The goals of the drug war are to reduce drug related death, disease, crime and drug use. It has accomplished NONE of those goals after almost 100 years of prohibition policy, over 1 trillion tax dollars wasted, ever tougher criminal penalties, arresting millions of Americans, removing an ever increasing list of our Constitutional rights and all the other effort and resources that have been put into this failed wasteful and harmful unproductive policy.
Right now we are installing 900 new prison beds and hiring 150 new correction officers every 2 weeks. Here in the “land of the free” for the first time in history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison. The U.S. accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of its prison population.
In 1914 when all drugs were legal in the US, 1.3% of the US population was addicted to drugs. Despite over 1 trillion tax dollars being wasted, millions of Americans being arrested, ever increasing harshness of penalties and all the other harms that have resulted from our failed drug prohibition policy, today 1.3% of our population is still addicted to drugs. That’s 0% improvement.
The Constitutional right to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and others have been unjustly denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
More information about drug laws from Just Say Know:
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