Marijuana garden leads to arrest

Investigators seize 400 plants after tip

ADAMS COUNTY — An Adams County man, who had allegedly grown 400 marijuana plants in his garden near the Grant County line, turned himself into the Adams County Sheriff's Office one day after authorities seized the plants during a search of his home.

According to the sheriff's office, 37-year-old Petronilo S. Barajas turned himself in Tuesday, after sheriff's deputies and investigators with the Inter Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team performed a narcotics search warrant Monday afternoon on the home he was renting.

According to a sheriff's office news release, investigators searched the home after receiving a tip the marijuana plants were being grown within rows of corn in Barajas' garden.

The plants had recently been in the garden, but Adams County Undersheriff Kevin Fuhr said they were pulled before officers arrived on scene. Investigators did not find any packaging material during the incident which could have been used for distribution, Fuhr said.

Deputies initially found 301 plants, which had been recently pulled from the garden and stacked into bundles. The plants ranged in size from several inches to several feet tall, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

Barajas was not at the residence at the time of the search, but later led deputies to the location of an additional 99 plants.

The plants had not yet matured, but investigators said their street value could have measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if they had grown for another few weeks.

"If those things had matured, they would be worth $1,00 a plant," Fuhr said.

Fuhr said Barajas was the only occupant of the home at 2945 W. Highway 26, one-quarter-mile east of the Grant County line. No other suspects are being sought in the incident, the sheriff's office stated.

Authorities in adjacent Grant County seized more than 20,00 marijuana plants in 2005, but Fuhr Said Wednesday he hasn't seen nearly the same numbers in Adams County.

"This is probably the largest grow that we've had in the last several years," he said.