Three arrested after being seen throwing pot plants out of Gary window

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - Three northwest Indiana residents suspected of running a marijuana-growing operation from their home should have thought of a better way to get rid of the evidence than throwing it out of the window.

Lake County Sheriff’s deputies were called about noon Wednesday to a home in the 1700 block of West 47th Avenue in Gary about marijuana being grown, a statement from the sheriff’s office said.

“The property manager was on scene watching the tenant’s throw marijuana plants out the window,” police said, and nearby residents had reported a “strong odor of raw marijuana.”

Deputies approached the home and also smelled cannabis, police said. And when the tenants, two women and a man, came outside, they were questioned, and gave permission to search the home and vehicle.

In the vehicle, police found a “blue duffel bag which contained plastic bags which contained a green plant-like substance and brownish-colored sticky wax which appeared to THC/marijuana,” police said.

Inside, members of the Lake County Drug Task Force Unit found over $3,000 in cash on the floor in the bedroom and inside a closet; a Smith & Wesson 40-caliber handgun; several jars of half-smoked marijuana and a “hand-rolled marijuana cigar,” police said. They also found three marijuana plants.

Altogether, officers seized 10 grams of suspected THC wax, 2.1 pound of suspected marijuana, and 33 marijuana plants.

Darian Freda, 19; and Emilio Leho, 20; and Sydney Lidster, 22, were charged with possession of marijuana, and further charges are pending, according to the sheriff’s office. Freda and Leho were tenants of the home where the marijuana was found.