HIGH TIMES leads to bust

[EckoSky]

This guy ordered hydroponic equipment from a vendor that advertises in High Times, and the police used this to get a search warrant and bust him.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/03/invoice_from_firm_that_adverti.html

GRAND RAPIDS -- Longtime Press sports columnist David Mayo, accused of growing marijuana in his Northeast Side home, was targeted for investigation after police tracked shipping invoices of a company that advertises in "High Times" magazine, court records showed.
Armed with that information, police sought utility bills, which showed Mayo's electric use was more than twice that of his neighbors.
Police also put his home under surveillance and determined he did not bring his trash to the curb, which is common among marijuana growers, police said.
Investigators in early January also noted a "large amount of mold" under the eaves on the outside of his house, which suggested to them strong grow lights were being used inside the residence, heating the room where marijuana was being grown, and causing condensation on the exterior.
The allegations were contained in search-warrant affidavits made public this week.
Sheriff's Lt. Kevin Kelley confirmed police based the investigation on items shipped by companies that advertised in "High Times" and other pro-marijuana publications.

Courtesy PhotoEvidence: Authorities found Mason jars filled with marijuana buds inside David Mayo's house on Fuller Avenue NE in Plainfideld Township.
Mayo bought, "on 11 occasions, hydroponic growing equipment that is specialized in indoor marijuana growing," according to sheriff's Detective Sgt. Todd Butler, who said local authorities received information from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, a project of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Operation Green Thumb has access to shipping invoices from suppliers who advertise their indoor marijuana-growing equipment in magazines such as 'High Times.' David Mayo bought his hydroponic equipment from one of the suppliers that do, in fact, advertise in this (manner)."
Mayo's lawyer, Bruce Block, could not be reached for comment, but earlier said he was reviewing police information to determine whether he should challenge the reason officers had probable cause to enter Mayo's Fuller Avenue NE house Jan. 19.
Mayo is suspended from The Press pending the legal outcome. He awaits trial on charges of growing from 20 to 200 plants, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, and a high-court misdemeanor charge of maintaining a drug house. Prosecutors have offered to reduce charges to a four-year felony if he pleads guilty.
Police say 71 marijuana plants and 32 ounces of packaged marijuana were found in the home.
Mayo's wife, Denise, awaits trial on charges of marijuana possession and maintaining a drug house.
Both are free on personal recognizance bonds.
Mayo, with no prior criminal record, has worked for The Press since 1985.

 

[gogrow]

this is really interesting..... i was wondering if there was any reason to be paranoid about ordering online....

 

[smokinmayne]

condensation on the extrerior,
not bringing the trash out.
big electric bill
and purchasing something off the internet 11 times through high times.

watch out guys

 

[cannaman2.5]

A word of advice.Law enforcement pays shops and credit card companies to obtain records.I know this first hand as it happened to me.Although i didn't get busted it was close.I ordered an areo flo 120 from www.discounthydro.com in cali.This was probably 10 years ago.I set everything up and had just established clones in the unit when i recieved a phone call from the state police narc division.he asked me if he obtained a search warrant would he find a hydroponic system in my house.I said no and tore it down,but had the laws been the way they are now i'm sure he could of gotten a warrant and searched my home or my dads home at the time...lol.He didn't live there though.Point is nobody knew i had bought the areo flo except visa and discount hydro..so you tell me.I own a hydro store now and we don't even except cards...just cash.I would advise everyone to only purchase by this method especially if your buying seeds from holland or canada and having them shipped to the us.

 

[ejf1676]

this i9s very scary police and government in general are out of control HOW IN THE FUCK can the government tell me what kind of medicine i can use and cant thats what it comes down to for me and what a bitch drive 2.5 hours to hydro shop to buy supplies thats fuct aAND think of all the legit tomato growers that get harrassed by these stupid fucking do gooders that are gonna rid the world of all that evil weed and those malicious potheads what a bunch of backwards fuccks start with the doctors and their lexapro and oxy

 

[smokinmayne]

no shit

where were the 32 ounces? cuz that didnt look like much in the picture. let me guess they escalate everything on the bust to make it seem like its worth wasting our money.

all those hours of sitting outside his house to see if he takes out his trash to go through it, and watch the mold grow outside his house or some shit.

who is the fucking judge to give them that warrant for just those minor fuckin "tips".

why dont you fuckin pigs go find the rapist and child molestors you donut eating fuckin bastards

america is getting more fucked by the day

 

[cannaman2.5]

The fucked up thing is that if a grower gets busted he gets more time than a child molester

 

[easygrinder]

no shit

where were the 32 ounces? cuz that didnt look like much in the picture. let me guess they escalate everything on the bust to make it seem like its worth wasting our money.

all those hours of sitting outside his house to see if he takes out his trash to go through it, and watch the mold grow outside his house or some shit.

who is the fucking judge to give them that warrant for just those minor fuckin "tips".

why dont you fuckin pigs go find the rapist and child molestors you donut eating fuckin bastards

america is getting more fucked by the day

there is more to it than that, thats the information they are giving to give us growers a scare.

I would have thought it would have been more down to his stupidity than anything else.

Sheriff's Lt. Kevin Kelley confirmed police based the investigation on items shipped by companies that advertised in "High Times" and other pro-marijuana publications

how would a local police force be able to track out of state shipments, I would have thought it would have been the fbi that would have gone down that route

even if the company is in the same state, are the police force really going to spend that much time and effort tracking shipment lists, when most of them will be going out of state, thats no longer their department, thats gotta be down to the fbi, if the fbi is chasing a collar they are not going to turn it over to local police to fuck up

 

[robert 14617]

they had to be watching him in the first place the warrant was just keeping the paper trail in order

 

[easygrinder]

they had to be watching him in the first place the warrant was just keeping the paper trail in order

yeah they were definitely on to him already, otherwise it would have been the fbi that got him under those circumstances

 

[ejf1676]

This was in grand rapids mi sgs is in michigan and they are a huge supplier i don't know if they advrtise in high times or not but they are a pretty big supplier this story is propaganda to scare growers in thinking their are neverending ways that you haven't considered for them to suspect you and into getting a million tips from grandpa and grandma everytime they see mold on a house thats just way to easy by the way how much is this costing us like i said if they are checking records for cold leaads they look at a lot of people before they actually find one worth investigating this is either costing a fortune or this guy fucked up and they used the oppurtunity to spread "information"

and also you would think that he could easily have thrown a wrench in due to michigan's new mmj laws and said he was preparing to be a grower for multiple patients who have the prescription but because a card system has not been setup yet he couldn't yet be on the state's system or whatever

the real question is if indeed it is that easy to use the intrenet to gather the type of information that they claim to have gottten what stops them from doing the same on riu?! it would be naive to think that leo of some order looks at all forums of illegal activity on a regular basis growing is not stump jumping granted but putting a screen name together with a person wouldn't be all that difficult (i am not a computer genius) imo and there is quite a bit of candid conversation involved in this website that i'm sure if i was leo i would be quite interested in

 

[luv2grow]

This was in grand rapids mi sgs is in michigan and they are a huge supplier i don't know if they advrtise in high times or not but they are a pretty big supplier this story is propaganda to scare growers in thinking their are neverending ways that you haven't considered for them to suspect you and into getting a million tips from grandpa and grandma everytime they see mold on a house thats just way to easy by the way how much is this costing us like i said if they are checking records for cold leaads they look at a lot of people before they actually find one worth investigating this is either costing a fortune or this guy fucked up and they used the oppurtunity to spread "information"

and also you would think that he could easily have thrown a wrench in due to michigan's new mmj laws and said he was preparing to be a grower for multiple patients who have the prescription but because a card system has not been setup yet he couldn't yet be on the state's system or whatever

the real question is if indeed it is that easy to use the intrenet to gather the type of information that they claim to have gottten what stops them from doing the same on riu?! it would be naive to think that leo of some order looks at all forums of illegal activity on a regular basis growing is not stump jumping granted but putting a screen name together with a person wouldn't be all that difficult (i am not a computer genius) imo and there is quite a bit of candid conversation involved in this website that i'm sure if i was leo i would be quite interested in

the scary part is your right

 

[gogrow]

This was in grand rapids mi sgs is in michigan and they are a huge supplier i don't know if they advrtise in high times or not but they are a pretty big supplier this story is propaganda to scare growers in thinking their are neverending ways that you haven't considered for them to suspect you and into getting a million tips from grandpa and grandma everytime they see mold on a house thats just way to easy by the way how much is this costing us like i said if they are checking records for cold leaads they look at a lot of people before they actually find one worth investigating this is either costing a fortune or this guy fucked up and they used the oppurtunity to spread "information"

and also you would think that he could easily have thrown a wrench in due to michigan's new mmj laws and said he was preparing to be a grower for multiple patients who have the prescription but because a card system has not been setup yet he couldn't yet be on the state's system or whatever

the real question is if indeed it is that easy to use the intrenet to gather the type of information that they claim to have gottten what stops them from doing the same on riu?! it would be naive to think that leo of some order looks at all forums of illegal activity on a regular basis growing is not stump jumping granted but putting a screen name together with a person wouldn't be all that difficult (i am not a computer genius) imo and there is quite a bit of candid conversation involved in this website that i'm sure if i was leo i would be quite interested in

what stops them??? nothing i assume.... but the logistics of it arent that great.... lets say (because im from louisiana) that i was a new orleans narcotics officer.... out of the people i talk to here, how many are from my state???

then lets narrow it down more and say; out of that handful of people, how many are in my jurisdiction?? .....

its simply not practical in my opinion... thats why i dont worry about the security here.

 

[llLOU]

This guy ordered hydroponic equipment from a vendor that advertises in High Times, and the police used this to get a search warrant and bust him.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/03/invoice_from_firm_that_adverti.html

OH GOOD!!!!,DON'T WE ALL FEEL MUCH SAFER NOW.You know ,what really bums me out ?, It's that there are some people in this country that will read these stories and say" thank god we have the police out there ,making our community safer for our children"drive me up a wall..

 

[freeindeed2008]

Personally I drive 5+ hours to discount hydro just to avoid the paper trail. Cash only. They even told me that they would ship but I said no. I don't know how much "big brother" is watching, but I am not going to help him!

 

[dhhbomb]

the thing i found odd is the discount hydro is my local store been there a bunch of times and have also used my credit card there several times never had a problem but if you can pay in cash i would advise it but i personally dont thin the any one spends that much time for a possible lead to much money wasted with no enough results i think i heard it right when i heard propaganda why do ui think the government is putting shows like dea and manhunters on tv not for your enjoyment for propaganda they want every one to think they will cautch u

 

[polishfalcon420]

no shit

where were the 32 ounces? cuz that didnt look like much in the picture. let me guess they escalate everything on the bust to make it seem like its worth wasting our money.

all those hours of sitting outside his house to see if he takes out his trash to go through it, and watch the mold grow outside his house or some shit.

who is the fucking judge to give them that warrant for just those minor fuckin "tips".

why dont you fuckin pigs go find the rapist and child molestors you donut eating fuckin bastards

america is getting more fucked by the day

+1 totally agree, quit wasteing my tax money.

 

[strangerdude562]

since when was it illegal to buy grow equipment, that isn't legit for probable cause. He can probably sue high times.

 

[fellowes]

Well I guess weed is worse than crack and heroin. FUCKING BASTARDS!!!

 

[bossman88188]

that is scary makes me feel real safe lol. even in hear, what was that, did you hear that?