The Tampa Tribune in Florida
Published: October 2, 2009
Specialty gardening store plants seeds for drug investigations
LARGO - On four different days earlier this year, an undercover narcotics detective with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office saw a white Volvo parked at Simply Hydroponics, a specialty gardening store in Largo.
The car was registered to a 37-year-old woman living in a Redington Beach waterfront home. The month after her Volvo was last seen at Simply Hydroponics, narcotics detectives raided her home.
They found 141 marijuana plants.
That same undercover detective also saw a silver and gray Honda Element at Simply Hydroponics, that led to a raid at a Clearwater home; a Ford pickup parked outside the store, that led to a raid on a Largo home; a green Dodge van at the store, that led to a raid on a St. Petersburg home; and two BMWs that were spotted at the store, that led to a raid at a different St. Petersburg address.
This is the picture that emerges from affidavits that were written this year by investigators to convince a judge to authorize the raids. Typically, after the plate number is jotted down, narcotics detectives go to property linked to the owner, and see if an inordinate amount of power is consumed there, or whether it smells of cannabis two tell-tale signs there's a marijuana grow-house inside. Then a search warrant is requested.
All told, according to the affidavits, the undercover detective launched more than a half dozen grow-house investigations simply by running license plate numbers outside the store a tactic that raises concerns that gardening aficionados might be unfairly targeted by narcotics investigators.
That's what the owner of Simply Hydroponics believes.
"We're being stereotyped and pigeonholed," said Allan Bednar, part-owner of Simply Hydroponics. "It's so ridiculous it's hard for me to grasp."
But sheriff's officials say the store is not being singled out.
"Are we targeting that business? Absolutely not," said Lt. Robert Alfonso of the Pinellas sheriff's narcotics division.
Says sheriff's Sgt. Sgt. Ron Wehr: "I don't have the manpower to put someone there around the clock."
But the impression left by the affidavits is that an undercover detective is there regularly.
He was there Jan. 21, Feb. 12, Feb. 20 and March 25, when he saw that white Volvo owned by Jennifer Ashley Arens, 37, a search warrant affidavit says. Arens was never charged, but Gaelan Clark, 39, was. He fainted when sheriff's investigators showed up at 16108 Fifth St. East, in Redington Beach, on April 30.
The detective was also at Simply Hydroponics on March 26, the day after he last saw Arens' Volvo, according to the search warrant affidavits. This time, he saw a green Dodge van linked to two St. Petersburg men who three years ago were suspected of laundering their drug profits through a tattoo parlor.
This year, as a result of the detective's spotting the van, the men were connected with a south St. Petersburg home, an affidavit says. Detectives could smell marijuana there from the outside, the affidavit says, when they went there. During the raid, investigators found 165 plants, $11,900 and two weapons.
On March 26, the detective also saw two BMWs at the store, at least one of which was linked to Richard Tyson Goodbread. Goodbread had been charged in 1997 with one count of manufacturing marijuana, but had entered a pre-trial intervention program, after which the case was dismissed.
When detectives went to Goodbread's home on April 21 in northeast St. Petersburg, they found 19 live marijuana plants, the affidavit says. This time, he was charged with two counts of manufacturing marijuana. In July, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years probation.
Sheriff's investigators say they are usually outside Simply Hydroponics in connection with some other investigation when the undercover detective runs a plate. The detective said that he will run a car owner's history through criminal data bases to see if the owner has a history, as Goodbread did, but if none surfaces, the detective says he will drop the matter.
"I respect the constitutional rights of these people and I put it aside," he said. His name is not being printed due to the undercover nature of his work.
Said Alfonso: "I'm sure there are legitimate people there that go there to do legitimate things."
When asked why the affidavits strongly imply each investigation is launched as the result of one detective running a license tag, investigators respond that the affidavits don't always give a complete picture just enough of one to persuade a judge to authorize a search.
When the sheriff's office announced the raid on the Redington Beach waterfront home, the press release said nothing of the white Volvo spotted at Simply Hydroponics. Instead, the release said the case began after investigators received a tip.
Defense attorney Timothy Hessinger, who represented Goodbread, said he thinks the sheriff's office has a confidential informant at Simply Hydroponics who tells investigators when someone buys merchandise for a grow operation.
"I don't know if they work there or visit there or hang out there," said Hessinger, a former prosecutor. "I can't swear to that, but I'm pretty sure. Otherwise, how would they know what they are purchasing?"
As for the practice of running tags, Hessinger doesn't have any problem with it. "It's all fair. There's nothing illegal about it. It's kind of like police officers hanging outside a bar looking for DUIs.''
Simply Hydroponics is not the only business where a purchase sets off an inquiry, investigators say. Once, narcotics detectives homed in on a suspect after hearing he was buying an inordinate amount of topsoil at Home Depot, said Wehr.
"If you are in the business of growing marijuana, you have to go to a supply store," said Alfonso.
But a review of this year's search warrant affidavits filed by the sheriff's office shows the only business mentioned in any of them is Simply Hydroponics. Bednar, the part-owner, says he doesn't believe detectives are spending a fraction of the time at Home Depot or Lowe's that they are outside his enterprise.
And his isn't the only specialty gardening store in the nation getting singled out, he said.
He said he has friends with shops all across the country, and he's heard stories for years store patrons being followed home, law enforcement agents knocking on their doors in the middle of the night, asking to take a look inside.
"It's not a new tactic," Bednar said. "It's just coming to light."
"They are going to target your customers," he said. "It's been an ongoing issue in our industry."
Whenever he or his staff gets the impression anyone is in the store to buy supplies for a grow operation, he said, the person is asked to leave.
"Anyone who tries to do a nod and a wink is thrown out of the store," he said.
And, Bednar says, Simply Hydroponics is apparently being singled out by the sheriff's office at a time when the business is trying to do good things in the community such as lending its expertise to inmates in work release programs so they can learn how to grow food.
"We're doing everything we can, but there's not much you can do about it," Bednar said. "They are going to do what they are going to do."
Reporter Stephen Thompson
