By BEN BROWN and RICHARD ROSIER The Daily Journal
Article Last Updated: 05/03/2008 04:01:30 PM PDT
More than 800 marijuana plants, more than 100 pounds of marijuana and an assault pistol were seized during the search of a Robinson Creek Road home Thursday, according to reports from the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force.
Task Force Commander Bob Nishiyama said officers served a search warrant on a house at 6620 Robinson Creek Road Thursday and found 885 small marijuana plants in two indoor gardens.
Officers also found between 100 and 150 pounds of finely ground marijuana, four ounces of "honey oil," a pound of processed marijuana, a set of brass knuckles and a Mac 10 assault pistol.
Officers arrested the home's occupants, Andy Daniel Smith and Tracy Lee Smith, on several drug charges. Their children, ages 7 and 3, were turned over to the Mendocino County Office of Child Protective Services.
Nishiyama said it appeared the suspects were using the finely ground marijuana to make "honey oil," a substance made by heating marijuana with butane to reduce it to a concentrated oil. He said there were 17 tubes for making honey oil and two cases of butane in the house.
In addition to the Mac 10, officers also found a one-footlong screw-on flash suppressor, designed to hide muzzle flash, and two 30-round magazines loaded with Black Talon ammunition.
Black Talon ammunition is designed to shatter on impact with a soft target in order to do maximum damage, Nishiyama said. The ammunition was pulled off the market by the manufacturer in 1993, and is illegal to import or sell in the United States, Nishiyama said.
He said the Task Force had not test fired the Mac 10 yet, but said the gun's design makes it easy to convert to fire on automatic. Neighbors in the area had complained about hearing automatic weapons fire, he said.
Officers also found a bypass on the home's electric meter, allowing the suspects to power their garden for free, Nishiyama said.
"They were able to run both indoor grows without paying for the electricity," Nishiyama said. "It was you and I who were paying for the electricity."
Nishiyama said bypasses like these are a public safety hazard because they pull enough power to cause transformers to blow.
"If it happens during the summer, it can be a considerable fire hazard," Nishiyama said.
The process of making "honey oil" can also be a fire hazard because it requires the use of volatile gas, Nishiyama said.
The Smiths were arrested on suspicion of cultivation of marijuana, manufacture of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana for sale, maintaining a residence for the production of a controlled substance, being armed in the commission of a felony, possession of an assault weapon, grand theft of utilities and felony child endangerment.
Both were booked into the Mendocino County Jail.
Ben Brown can be reached at udjbb@pacific.net.
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