TAYLORSVILLE, Utah, May 25, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Unified officers discovered a large-scale marijuana grow operation following a lead on an unrelated incident at a Taylorsville home last week.
Unified Police Department Lt. Lex Bell said a detective in the Kearns area had come to the home near 3700 West Ridgecrest Drive on Wednesday, May 18, on an unrelated complaint, and could smell a strong odor of marijuana when the wife answered the door.
“The wife let the officer in and during that time, it was discovered there was probable cause to obtain a search warrant for the rest of the house,” Bell said. “When officers searched the home, they found a very large scale grow operation in the basement of the home.”
Bell said they had a full scale set up including water ventilation, heat lamps, small geraniums, and both small and large plants, some as high as 5-feet tall.
“They also had bags that had already been harvested and dried in the fridge upstairs in the kitchen,” Bell said. “They confiscated somewhere between 50-60 plants.”
Wasatch Range Task Force is now in charge of investigation and Bell said the operation has most likely been there for seven or eight years, all while children were being raised in the home.
Cuong Hung Nguyen, 45, was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on two counts of violating a protective order and one third-degree felony count of knowingly producing, dispensing, or manufacturing a controlled substance.
