Sheriff's Office wraps up probe into pot grows
Jennifer Squires - SENTINEL STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 02/04/2008 3:00:00 AM PST
A 16-month investigation into marijuana grows at homes across the county ended Friday when sheriff's narcotics detectives arrested four people suspected of cultivating the plants at residences across the county, according the Sheriff's Office.
Narcotics detectives had arrested two other people, served nine search warrants and seized almost 2,000 pot plants, about 12 pounds of processed marijuana, 2.5 grams psilocybin mushrooms, scales, packaging material and evidence of money laundering, Sgt. Steve Carney reported.
Apparently, the group was growing marijuana in houses purchased by one family and then used the profits from drug sales to pay the mortgages on the homes, Carney said.
The investigation began when detectives busted an outdoor pot grow on Ormsby Trail in Watsonville in October 2006 and took 425 plants off the property.
Seven months later, deputies investigated an overloaded power transformer on Rider Road in Watsonville and determined one house had been using an usually high amount of power. They suspected the residents were growing pot and got a search warrant. Inside, detectives found 373 plants growing. They also learned the Rider Road and Ormsby Trail houses were owned by the same Aptos family.
The bust of a third house in July -- this time on Branciforte Drive in Santa Cruz -- owned by a friend of the Aptos family, which owns the other housed under investigation, led to a probe of all the family’s county properties, according to Carney.
Detectives learned this family purchased 11 homes from July 2004 to March 2007 in excess of $8.6 million. They were also involved in the sale of the Branciforte Drive house.
Detectives served search warrants on three of the family's other houses in mid-December: two on Loma Prieta Drive in Aptos and one on Washburn Street in Santa Cruz, according to Carney. They found 9.4 pounds of marijuana -- some packaged consistent with bulk sales -- 18.7 grams of hash, handwritten notes consistent with the weighing and packaging of marijuana, packaging material, 219 indoor marijuana plants and other evidence associated with pot sales in one of the Loma Prieta Drive homes, the Sheriff's Office reported. The other two houses each contained more than 200 plants.
The Sheriff's Office also went back to the Rider Road house in October and December, returned to the Ormbsy Trail house in December and served a search warrant with a Watsonville company, which sells equipment necessary to grow plants indoors, Carney said.
Two people were arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale during the course of the investigation: Eric Van Vliet, 20, of Watsonville, was picked up at the Rider Road house and Joshua Surratt, 25, of Santa Cruz, was arrested at the Branciforte Drive house. Both were convicted and are serving jail sentences, according to Carney. Van Vliet was a member of the Santa Cruz High basketball team that won a state championship in 2005. Van Vliet was injured that season, but earned a scholarship to the University of Montana, where he played for one year.
Deputies arrested four others Friday.
Ryan Hinchman, 25, who owns three of the houses, was arrested at a Loma Prieta home on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale. Gabriel Morabito, 24, was arrested at the other Loma Prieta house on the same charges and Shana Heller, 24, of Santa Cruz, was arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana at the Rider Road address.
It’s suspected each grow house aimed to produce $300,000-$600,000 worth of marijuana annually, he said.
He said Surratt bought the Branciforte Drive house, now in foreclosure, with proceeds from pot sales and was using the marijuana grow to make house payments.
