| Photo: WTSP |
| Some of the plants seized from the home of 84-year-old Bernardino Gonzalez. Of course, asshole cops couldn’t resist going ahead and mutilating the plants, just to prove what macho ass-bags they are. |
An 84-year-old Florida man faces drug-trafficking charges after Sarasota County, Florida sheriff’s deputies busted into his home and claimed they found 60 marijuana plants in what they described as an “elaborate” grow house.
Members of the Special Investigations unit conducted surveillance on the home, wasting untold thousands of taxpayer dollars in the process, after a butt-insky deputy responding to an unrelated call in the neighborhood claimed he smelled the odor of cannabis coming from the area.
The Sheriff’s Office claims it pinpointed the smell as coming from a home in Island Date Street and were able to get a search warrant, reports Beau Zimmer at WTSP.
| Photo: WTSP |
| Bernardino Gonzalez, 84, was jailed |
SWAT team members knocked the door down, forcing their way into the home after nobody answered. Inside they found 84-year-old Bernardino Gonzalez, originally from Cuba, hiding in the dining room. Deputies claim they also found potted marijuana plants “in various stages of growth” inside.
“It’s hard to deny when you’re residing in a house that has over 143 pounds of marijuana in it that you didn’t know what was going on,” said Major Kevin Kinney of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.
What Major Kinney isn’t telling you is that when he says “143 pounds,” it’s extremely misleading because he’s weighing entire, uncured cannabis plants, including all the stalks and stems as well as all the water in the undried leaves and buds. Also, for the record, Major Kinney’s unbecomingly smart-assed attitude has been noted.
| Photo: WTSP |
| It takes some serious Cop Math to come up with “143 pounds” as the total for 60 plants when these tiny clones were counted as part of the 60. |
That “60 plant” count is misleading as well, since many of the plants appeared, from the publicity photos released by the Sheriff’s Office, to be tiny clones in the process of being rooted.
The elderly Gonzalez was thrown into the Sarasota County Jail on charges of drug trafficking and maintaining a grow house.
Neighbors in the question subdivision said they were shocked.
“We know he was an older man, and to find he participated in something like that, it’s like WOW,” said Dennis and Sharon Reed, who live two doors down.
Investigators claimed they had busted more than 40 similar grow houses across Sarasota County over the past three years.
Imagine how much actual crime these morons could have stopped instead of wasting your tax money going after pot growers!
To watch WTSP’s video report on the bust, click here.
| Photo: WTSP |