Meadow Lakes man arrested at airport

ANCHORAGE -- Alaska State Troopers met a Wasilla area man at Ted Stevens International Airport and arrested him for running a commercial marijuana farm on North Meadow Lakes Loop. Troopers seized nearly 2,500 plants of varying ages from a residence owned by 47-year-old John W. Warren back in February.

Warren was indicted May 8 on four felony charges stemming from the pot bust. All four charges are Class C misdemeanors.

Troopers reported in February that they initially found the operation by coincidence. An alarm in the neighborhood, a mix-up with addresses, an open window and the pungent smell of budding marijuana combined in a chain of events that aroused trooper's suspicions.

"A patrol officer responded over there for a report of an alarm. It happened to be that the address was wrong, but there was a suspicious opened window," Sergeant Patrick Davis, supervisor of the Mat-Su drug interdiction team said. "The trooper who responded to the alarm smelled it."

The trooper on patrol called the drug interdiction team so that a search warrant could be obtained for Warren's property. Once inside, investigators from the narcotics unit found 2,034 live plants and 441 unrooted starter plants in the building's crawl space, according to a press release issued in February. 1,200 of the live plants were budding, troopers wrote in an affidavit filed in court to support the charges against Warren. Davis said it is not uncommon for the narcotics unit to find marijuana operations so large, but added that it does not happen every day.

According to the affidavit, troopers tracked down Warren's ownership of the property and electricity account for the property. Some paperwork seized at the property shows that Warren lives there. Troopers also seized growing equipment, processed marijuana -- about one third of a gram -- and some drug paraphernalia. A boat, a snowmachine and an ATV were also seized, according to the press release, because troopers believe they were purchased with marijuana profits.

Troopers estimate that one marijuana plant is worth $2,000, according to Davis. Using the trooper's estimate, the 2,034 live plants seized from the property had the potential to produce a gross income of more than $4 million.