How much power do you need for a weed farm? Two men were jailed after finding out
.jpg "Pasco County Sheriff’s Office arrested Geikel Lopez Suarez, 34, and Alexey Del Pino Rodriguez, 36, for stealing about $11,000 worth of electricity to power a marijuana grow house.")
Two men were diverting nearly $11,000 worth of city power to their home — but it wasn’t to power an over-the-top entertainment system or super computer. It was for marijuana, deputies said.
On Monday morning, Geikel Lopez Suarez, 34, was a passenger in a stolen rental car parked in a Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot when a Pasco County deputy decided to have a conversation with him. The deputy knew that Lopez Suarez was the renter of home that was being investigated for a possible marijuana grow house.
Soon, Alexey Del Pino Rodriguez, 36, who rented the car and failed to return it, arrived at the lot. After talking with the two over the stolen car, the deputy got down to business. He wanted to know about the marijuana grow house.
The pair gave the deputy permission to search the home. What authirities found was exactly what they had suspected.
Two grow rooms were found in the home, deputies said. They looked to be in process of being broken down. The plants were cut down and the flowers and buds were being dried and packaged.
Deputies say that Lopez Suarez admitted to knowing about the grow rooms, but said Del Pino Rodriguez managed them. Lopez Suarez said he just rents the house and pays for the electricity.
Talking about electricity, the home of these two had more power than usual, deputies said. A Duke Energy employee calculated that from Nov. 1 to Nov. 22 two five-ton a/c units were eating up near $11,000 worth of electricity.
Del Pino Rodriguez told deputies he was in the process of disassembling the grow rooms and admitted to staying at the home but said he lives in Texas.
Deputies found 15.9 pounds of root balls, garbage bags with cut-up stalks, 62.7 pounds of stems and leaves, and 74 pounds of marijuana flowers and buds dried and packaged.
Lopez Suarez and Del Pino Rodriguez were charged with grand theft of utility services.
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