Valrico Man Charged in Alleged Marijuana Grow House

Hillsborough County sheriff’s detectives arrested Felipe Tamayo Hernandez of Valrico last weekend after allegedly discovering a marijuana grow house in his residence.

Investigators executed a search warrant on the home on Clareside Drive. They claim to have found “a sophisticated lighting and irrigation system” and an air conditioner used to cool the garage of the home.

According to court records, detectives seized 20 marijuana plants that weighed a combined 186 pounds and had a street value of $140,000. Hernandez, a laborer, was charged with manufacture of marijuana, trafficking in marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and grand theft of electricity. He is being held at a Hillsborough County jail on $29,500 bail.

If Hernandez is convicted, the trafficking charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison. The manufacture charge is a third-degree felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

From the facts disclosed by law enforcement, prosecutors just missed the ability to charge Hernandez under Florida’s Marijuana Grow House Eradication law. Florida law makes it a second-degree felony to grow 25 or more marijuana plants (the previous threshold was 300 plants). It is a third-degree felony to own a house for the purpose of cultivating, packaging and distributing marijuana and a first-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants in a home with children present.

See Also:

• Woman Charged in Marijuana Growing
• Pinellas Residents Arrested in Marijuana Grow House Investigation
• Ten Arrested in Hernando County Marijuana Bust