Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Gene Kennedy ReportingOvernight, sheriff's deputies shut down an elaborate pot growing operation in Salt Lake City.
A basement was filled with nearly 100 marijuana plants at a home in the Liberty Park area.
A concerned citizen tipped authorities off. To that person, the red flags were obvious: lots of cars pulling up to the house, the homeowner was never seen going to work, and a posh Caddy parked out front.
So detectives had a feeling they were onto something. They just didn't know how big it would be.
The man was growing solid buds. And when SWAT raided the house they were overcome by the smell of the marijuana growing, it's quite an elaborate system. It's a hydroponic system, meaning it's being supported by water.
A nursery-style pot growing operation, complete with lights that investigators have never seen before.
The gentleman has a lighting system where it's on a pulley that rotates back and forth in the basement. The grower even had "how to" manuals to help him out. And it definitely worked, until this morning.
Plant after plant was hauled out of the home.
A concerned citizen tipped police off, but one neighbor tells us he had no idea what was happening right under his nose.
Faris Alaboudy, neighbor: "Look how strong that smell is and we live right next door. I'm kind of excited. I think he did a good job to grow these trees."
Sgt. Kevin Matthews, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office: "If you look marijuana is 300-400 dollars an ounce and he's producing 13 to 14 ounces a day. You can do the math; it's a lot of money."
An operation that had been going strong for five years, equating to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of weed.
Roy Harmon watched sheriff's deputies pull 100 marijuana plants out of the basement of his neighbor's house.
Roy Harmon, next door neighbor: "It just kept coming and coming. It was like, oh my goodness man, this guy's harvesting a major amount of marijuana on a daily basis and he's making money hand over fist! I've lived next door to the gentleman for two years and I had no idea what was going on, I had no idea he did anything like this."
But there were red flags.
Roy Harmon: "Oh, massive traffic. There was so much traffic in and out of here and it was the same cars over and over again."
Detectives say the grower is 52-year old John Scott Beverleigh. Investigators say 28-year old Angela Rekoutis helped him. The two were arrested have been booked on cultivation of marijuana charges.
Beverleigh was a convicted felon. Authorities will push for federal charges because they found ammunition in the home,not something a convicted felon should have.
