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Pot bust nets 100 plants

• The Terrell County Sheriff’s Office will soon have about eight new vehicles confiscated in a weekend drug bust in Sasser.

Joshua Brown

SASSER — Just after large marijuana busts in neighboring Lee and Dougherty counties, Terrell County authorities say they made a large dent in Southwest Georgia’s marijuana supplies with the location of a 100-plant marijuana growing operation.

Officials with the Terrell County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation raided 155 Peachtree St. Saturday morning, arresting Weyman Harris, 57, on a charge of marijuana manufacturing, Sheriff John Bowens said Monday.

Officials found and confiscated more than 100 marijuana plants growing in the home, Bowens said.

“It was a long weekend, but it was good,” Bowens said. “This is the biggest (marijuana bust) I’ve seen over here.”

Like the Lee County operations authorities broke up on June 29, the Terrell County one was sophisticated, GBI Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Lewis said.

“Oh yeah, I think it was a significant operation,” he said. “It’s still under active investigation by ourself (and) the Terrell County Sheriff’s Office.”

Lewis estimated the plants would grow about $500,000-$600,000 worth of pot each year.

Investigators also found a moving truck filled with several slot machines and about eight other vehicles, including several Cadillacs, a Jaguar and a Plymouth mini van, Bowens said.

“We get to keep the vehicles,” he said. “We seized it all, (but) it’ll be a while before they get into our possession.”

While he didn’t know how much of an impact this bust, combined with other large marijuana busts in the region, would have on Southwest Georgia’s pot supply, Bowens said he hoped that it would slow down marijuana trafficking.

“I hope so, but by the time you catch one (marijuana growing operation) another one starts up,” he said.

Lewis said that investigators got a tip from a concerned citizen about the marijuana operation.

GBI officials hope to make more arrests in the case, he said.

“We’re looking into the (possibility) that there may have been others involved in this operation,” Lewis said.

Lewis said he believes the busts of the last few weeks will make at least some impact in the region’s marijuana market.

“Well, any time you get several operations like that it’s going to have some impact,” he said.

Lewis said he didn’t know if there would be any additional charges brought against Harris.

Lee County officials made the biggest marijuana bust in the county’s history on June 29 when officials found 237 plants in two houses managed by real estate agent Scott Renfroe. Five people were arrested in connection with that marijuana-growing operation.

Days before that, the Albany Police Department arrested Michael John Dias, 29, on marijuana possession and sales charges after they found about 100 marijuana plants in his home on Front Avenue.

He was also charged with weapons possession violations and drug possession within 1000 feet of a school.

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