Jones County Investigators Dismantle In-Door Pot Farm

GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — 79-marijuana plants were seized from a home in Jones County after investigators shut down a massive indoor pot-farm.

It was a windy Tuesday afternoon on Ed Etheridge Road, but other than the sounds of nature it was quiet. Josephine Haralson says, that’s how it usually is in the small Gray neighborhood.

“Most of us are retired people living quiet lives,” says Harlson.

On Tuesday morning, Jones County Sheriff Butch Reece says that quiet was disrupted.

“It was a rainy day, and you can catch people off guard when the weather’s bad.”

Three Jones County investigators used the weather to shut down a major in-door marijuana operation. They arrested and charged 33-year-old Leo Ross, and his wife, 38-year-old Jessica Ross with cultivating marijuana.

Investigators seized 79 plants, along with items used to grow the pot from the Ross’ home. They called the in-door farm “sophisticated.” Sheriff Reece says the suspects knew what they were doing.

“I’ve been to some large grows that our investigators have worked with in Fayette County and thousands of plants, but they absolutely didn’t have the smell of this marijuana,” says Reece.

She didn’t know them by name, but when 41NBC showed Haralson a picture of the suspects, she recognized their faces.

“I have seen em, all I do is wave at em when they come by,” says Haralson.

Sheriff Reece says it’s comforting to know his investigators took these drugs off the street, but what saddens him, is what they found in their search.

“There were two small children… the thing that worries me as a grandparent is you see small children there in the midst of all this,” says Reece.

“I feel sorry for the children,” says Haralson.

As a grandma herself, Haralson says, that’s the most shocking part of this whole operation.