A husband and wife from Dahlonega have been charged with running a large marijuana grow operation out of their home on Camp Wahsega Road.
Lt. Alan Roach with the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office said drug agents acted on an anonymous tip and raided the home. Robert Cartee, 53, and Tracey Diamond Cartee, 50, were at home at the time the agents arrived with the search warrant.
"[The agents] also located 174 marijuana plants, 24 firearms, seven grow lights, five power inverters, a dehydrator, a vacuum bag sealer and they also located three pounds of marijuana that was ready for distribution," Roach said.
Roach said the estimated street value of the drugs alone was $360,000.
Roach said the Cartees were running the operation out of the basement of the house, and he said it was very organized.
"There was definitely plants that were fully mature and then there was also juvenile marijuana plants at the location...along with the actual harvested marijuana that they had harvested and packaged in containers and marked with weights," Roach said.
At this point, both suspects face marijuana trafficking charges, although Roach said more charges are pending.
The Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office received assistance in the investigation from the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office (ARDEO), according to Roach.
This collage of photos from the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office shows various parts of the marijuana grow operation discovered in a house on Camp Wahsega Road near Dahlonega.
Robert Cartee (left) and Tracey Diamond Cartee aka Tracey Leigh Diamond (right) have been charged with trafficking in marijuana.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/7/689509/drug-agents-find-360k-worth-of-marijuana-in-dahlonega-grow-house