May 11, 2007
Brandon Haught
Public Information Office

MARIJUANA GROWING OPERATION FOUND IN EAST VOLUSIA 

Volusia County narcotics agents found approximately 126 marijuana plants and a quarter pound of cut marijuana in a home near New Smyrna Beach during a Friday morning raid. The live and harvested plants have a street value of approximately $378,000. A woman in the home was arrested on several drug charges, and an investigation is ongoing to find any other people who were involved in the grow operation.   

                        
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Narcotics investigators conducted an investigation over the course of several months and obtained a search warrant for the home. The Eastside Narcotics Task Force and Volusia County Sheriff’s SWAT Team executed the search warrant shortly after 6 a.m. at 1366 Jane Lacey Lane. Three areas on the property were being used to grow the plants: a bedroom closet and two rooms of a detached garage. The rooms were equipped with special grow lights, cooling systems and fertilizer. 

Melissa Cathcart, 38, was charged with manufacture of marijuana, possession of marijuana over twenty grams and possession of drug paraphernalia. She will be booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach. 

The Eastside Narcotics Task Forces is multi-agency force of investigators from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, Daytona Beach Police Department, Ormond Beach Police Department, Edgewater Police Department and New Smyrna Beach Police Department that shares resources and crosses jurisdictional boundaries to combat street-level drug and vice crimes. 

Residents of east Volusia who have information about possible drug activity are encouraged to contact the East Volusia Narcotics Task Force at 386-274-0185. Those on the west side of the county can call the West Volusia Narcotics Task Force at 386-736-5249.