Couple accused of running pot ‘grow house’
Marijuana plants weighing 70 pounds in the bathroom and dining room. Cocaine under a bed. A .38-caliber handgun on a shelf over the microwave. And a secret ladder to yet another grow room.
That’s some of what authorities say they found when they raided a marijuana grow house Friday and arrested a married couple they said admitted to operating the ambitious drug enterprise in the home where their children, ages 8 and 12, lived.
Alexander Bertot, 48, and Roxanne Fonseca, 38, were booked Friday afternoon into the Palm Beach County Jail. The two were released Saturday afternoon after Bertot posted bond of $55,000 and Fonseca, $52,000, jail and court records show.
According to a Palm Beach County sheriff ’s report, deputies brought a search warrant Friday morning to a home whose address was redacted. The report does not say the home that was raided was the couple’s residence on Chase Road in suburban West Palm Beach, near Summit Boulevard and Haverhill Road.
As the deputies entered, the report said, they “detected a powerful odor of raw growing marijuana.”
In a bathroom, investigators found liquid fertilizer and growing supplies, lights, buckets and growing material.
In a bedroom converted to a grow room, the deputies found that plants had “recently been harvested.” The deputies found six high-intensity lights with hoods and ballasts and 14 orange 54-gallon buckets that “were ready for new plants.” They also found 12 small marijuana plants.
The report said Bertot showed deputies to a closet that had a ladder and door hatch that formed a secret passage to the second floor.
“I went up the ladder and found 23 5-foot-tall budding marijuana plants and 10 2-foot-tall marijuana plants,” an undercover sheriff ’s agent wrote. He reported also finding 11 high-intensity lights and ballasts.
In another bathroom, the investigators found 10 more large marijuana plants and a grow light, along with two extra air-conditioning units.
Under a bed in a room where Bertot said he slept, deputies found a plate holding 10 grams of cocaine. On a dresser, deputies found a sifter and 13 grams of cocaine in two plastic bags, “ready for distribution.”
In the kitchen and dining room area, the deputies found a heat sealer, bags and “tons” of dangerous liquid fertilizer kept near children’s food. They also found 55 live marijuana plants.
On one shelf, they found a bag containing 65 grams — a little less than 2½ ounces — of processed marijuana. On another shelf above a microwave oven, they found a loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun. And they also found a cartridge containing 13 grams of hashish.
A freezer in the dining room contained 21 individual bags of marijuana totaling 10.3 pounds.
The report said Bertot admitted growing marijuana in the home for the last year. He said his last harvest grossed $15,000.
The report said Fonseca also admitted to the operation and told deputies she worked for a Veterans Affairs hospital; the report doesn’t elaborate and a spokeswoman for the hospital would neither confirm nor deny the employment.
Bertot and Fonseca are charged with one count each of possessing more than 20 pounds of marijuana, owning or renting a home where drugs are trafficked, possessing drug equipment, possessing cocaine with intent to sell and possessing a controlled substance without a prescription. Both also are charged with two counts each of child neglect and operating a home with drugs while minors were present.