cannabisnews.com: Police Seek Suspect After Pot Seized Police Seek Suspect After Pot Seized Posted by FoM on June 11, 2000 at 10:15:26 PT By Chad Hayworth Source: Arkansas-Democrat Benton County sheriff's deputies continued to search Saturday for a Bella Vista man they say was running the most sophisticated marijuana growing operation ever found in the area. On Thursday night, deputies seized 639 marijuana plants, growing lights, carbon monoxide bottles, timers and reflectors from the Bella Vista home of William D. Cumpton, 44. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. "It looks a lot like stuff grown in Hawaii and other tropical areas," said Chief Deputy Don Townsend. "This is some very high-quality stuff." Townsend said the growing operation, housed in the basement of Cumpton's home at 62 Chelmsworth Drive, was highly automated. Timers controlled the amount and type of light the plants received, as well as water distribution. Fans pumped the ideal amount of carbon dioxide into the grow rooms to ensure optimum growth. Townsend said it appears the plants had been created from a hybrid of several varieties of marijuana and then "cloned" using a technique often used by tomato growers. The process involves starting a new plant from the sliver of another, he said. The plants appear to have a high tetrahydrocannabinol content, he said. Tetrahydrocannabinol is the hallucinatory chemical that gives the drug its potency. Benton County Sheriff Andy Lee said confidential informants told one of his investigators that Cumpton sold the marijuana he grew for more than $300 an ounce. Townsend said the tangy, evergreen smell of growing marijuana could be detected from the road in front of Cumpton's home. Because of Bella Vista's hilly geography, Cumpton doesn't have any close neighbors. "The other thing that struck me about the place was how clean it was inside the home," Townsend said. "It almost looked like he had a cleaning person coming in every day." Deputies also seized several hundred other items from the home, including a 19-foot outboard Champion bass boat, two Honda motorcycles, 11 rifles, three handguns, a night-vision scope, two four-wheelers, a big screen television, a computer and a 5-foot-tall stack of stereo and other audiovisual equipment. It took investigators all day Friday and into Saturday to catalog and load up the items taken from the home. Lee said his office will seek to seize most of the property under state forfeiture laws. The items that can be used by his office will be kept, while the rest will be auctioned. The firearms likely will be sent to the state crime laboratory for destruction, Lee said. The operation was discovered after a bank teller in Bentonville reported several large all-cash deposits into Cumpton's account. The latest deposit had a funny odor that prompted the bank to call the sheriff's office. Cumpton's bank accounts have been frozen. Lee said he hopes Cumpton will turn himself in. "It won't do him any good to run," the sheriff said. "He can't run far enough to get this monkey off his back." Published: Sunday, June 11, 2000Copyright © 2000, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. PBS: Frontline - Snitchhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/Cannabis Related News Topics:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #1 posted by Dan B on June 11, 2000 at 16:20:58 PT: Which Bank? Boycott! Since this bank clearly has a policy of informin on its own customers, let's find out the name of the bank and call for a boycott. Banks are designed for one purpose: to hold our money until we need it again. When banks get into law enforcement, customers beware! By the way--have you noticed that property has been seized and catalogued without properly informing the owner, purely for the purpose of increasing police coffers? Not an uncommon occurrence, but interesting in light of the supposed "reforms" that are taking place with regard to forfeiture laws. I'm sure the Policeman's Ball will be a big success this year. I wonder how much alcohol they'll buy with their drug money? [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: