A 22-year-old former student of the University of the West Indies (UWI) is in police custody after a raid on his sophisticated indoor marijuana greenhouse on Thursday. The suspect, of Diego Martin, was arrested yesterday by St Joseph police in an apartment near the university’s St Augustine campus hours after they found his illegal farm at another apartment one street away.
Police made the first raid around 7 am on Thursday when they searched an apartment at Bedessie Street after reports of suspicious activity by the former business and information technology student. When they entered they found all the furniture had been removed and replaced with LED lamps and plant pots containing over 100 high-grade marijuana plants. An industrial air purification unit was being used to conceal the pungent smell produced by the flowering plants.
According to reports, police returned to the area around 5 pm on Thursday after they received information the suspect was hiding out in another apartment on Old Tim Street. Investigators caught the suspect attempting to dispose of a large bag of marijuana by flushing it down the toilet. He was stopped and the drugs, which weighed a little over 900 grammes, seized.
They also found a notebook which contained the names and telephone numbers of the suspect’s customers, their orders and outstanding payments owed to him. The man was arrested and taken to the St Joseph Police Station where, while under interrogation, he admitted to running the operation for over a year. He reportedly told police he elected to drop out of university last year after he realised he could make more money from growing and selling marijuana.
He is expected to appear in the Tunapuna Magistrate’s Court on Monday.