Lake County sheriff's deputies seized more than 300 marijuana plants in a series of connected raids around the county this week.
Deputies first raided a house on Bel Air East Drive in Kelseyville on Tuesday and located 151 plants growing under lights indoors and several ounces of processed marijuana, Lt. Steve Brooks said in a news release.
The occupant of the house, Juvenal Polvos Garcia, 24, fled the house and was arrested after a brief foot chase across the grounds of Riviera Elementary School. He later claimed the marijuana was for medicinal use, but detectives concluded the amount at the house greatly exceeded his stated needs, Brooks said.
Detectives found evidence on Garcia that led to a raid the next day on a house on 35th Street in Clearlake, reportedly where Garcia lives. They did not locate any marijuana, but found utility bills for two houses in Lucerne and one in Clearlake.
That led them to raid those houses over the following two days, Brooks said, leading to the seizure of additional plants growing indoors and several more ounces of processed marijuana. Detectives found evidence that connected all the indoor grow houses to Garcia, he said.
In all 368 plants were seized and destroyed.
Garcia was arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, possessing marijuana for sale and resisting arrest.
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