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Witness tells history of pot house

The government informer walks the jury though each step of setting up the indoor operation in Lutz.

By CARRIE WEIMAR
Published August 17, 2006

TAMPA - From the outside, 18970 Crooked Lane looked like a typical suburban home.

Inside, however, it had become a hydroponic farm with nearly 100 marijuana plants.

On Wednesday, an informer for the Drug Enforcement Agency walked a jury in U.S. District Court through how he and others planted the forbidden garden inside the 3,250-square-foot Lutz residence.

The informer, Harvey "Duke" Faglier, told jurors that by fall 2005 he helped create the marijuana house at the instruction of Herbert Ferrell Jr., who has been charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 marijuana plants.

Ferrell was one of 11 people arrested in what authorities called a multimillion-dollar marijuana growing operation in some of Tampa Bay's nicest neighborhoods.

Most of the other defendants pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Ferrell's trial began Monday.

In a meeting Faglier secretly recorded, Ferrell can be heard discussing the supplies needed to build a drug house.

On a recording played Wednesday, Ferrell could be heard discussing buying lumber, PVC pipe and electrical cords at Home Depot. He also mentioned buying foam blocks from a Largo garden store called Simply Hydro that can be used for growing marijuana.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli showed pictures of the home's evolution.

First, benches were built to hold buckets filled with plants. Faglier and several of Ferrell's associates rigged lights to simulate sunlight and a pumping system to cultivate the plants.

The artificial light gave off an intense amount of heat, so they installed a second air-conditioning unit in the house to cool it.

The men also paid an electrician to rig the house's electrical system so that it bypassed the meter, Faglier said.

The indoor garden required a huge amount of electricity and they didn't want to pay for it or tip off law enforcement, he said.

Faglier told jurors he did all of this on Ferrell's orders. Ferrell also paid for supplies, he said.

But on cross-examination, Ferrell's attorney, Joseph Bodiford, accused Faglier of intimidating his client into creating the drug house.

Faglier is a muscular man, with tattoos covering both arms and a dollar sign inked into his palm, Bodiford said.

On one recording, Faglier can be heard discussing a knife fight in Miami with two Cubans. He said one man was "no longer with us" and bragged of breaking the knife off at the hilt while fighting the other.

Bodiford asked Faglier whether he told his client about the fight to scare him.

"It's part of the role I'm playing," Faglier said. "All of it is an act."

[Last modified August 17, 2006, 06:36:53]