Man arrested after police recover marijuana plants

Published 12:00 am Friday, March 19, 2010

VIDALIA — A Vidalia man turned himself in to police Tuesday after they reportedly recovered 14 marijuana plants at his residence.

Dexter Lee Morace, 20, 112 Louisiana Ave., was booked at the Vidalia Police station on charges of manufacture-cultivation of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The police had initially gone to Morace’s Louisiana Avenue residence to assist the Office of Community Services in a matter, Vidalia Police Lt. Jamie Lipscomb said.

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When they arrived, police knocked on front and side doors before approaching the back of the residence to knock on a door there, Lipscomb said.

As he was knocking on the back door, Lipscomb said he glanced through the windows into the house’s laundry room.

“When we went up the back steps, in plain view there were 14 marijuana plants, just as pretty and green as could be, just soaking up the sun,” Lipscomb said.

After posting officers in the area, Lipscomb said he went to a judge and got a search warrant that allowed the police to gain entry to the house and confiscate the plants.

Officers also found some paraphernalia related to the plants, Lipscomb said.

No one was home when the officers entered the house, but Morace turned himself in after learning the police were looking for him, Lipscomb said.

The plants were approximately 1.5-feet tall, and each plant was worth approximately $1,000, making the total bust worth approximately $14,000, he said.