The father of a Windham man, charged with marijuana cultivation and trafficking, turned himself in Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 23, after police issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with an alleged drug operation being run out of the family’s residence on Edith Jeffords Road.
Last week, Seth Jeffords, 20, of Windham, voluntarily turned himself in after Windham police raided the home he shared with his father Wayne.
The day after the charges laid against his son hit the Cumberland County District Attorney’s desk, Windham police went to the Jeffords’ residence on Tuesday, Aug. 22, to check on Seth Jeffords, out on bail, and arrest his father Wayne Jeffords.
Though Wayne Jeffords was not home at the time, police found marijuana and drug paraphernalia with cocaine residue in the household and arrested Seth Jeffords again for violation of bail conditions, said Sgt. Mike Denbow of the Windham Police.
Police informed Wayne Jefford’s wife that it would be in her husband’s best interest to surrender to arrest.
Now both father and son face charges of aggravated cultivation of marijuana and unlawful trafficking of the drug.
All charges stem from a search of the Jeffords home last week when Windham police and federal DEA agents discovered 40 mature marijuana plants – both inside and outside the house – as well as scales and packaging equipment presumably used for distribution.
Seth Jeffords, who was home during the police raid, ran away from the house, taking pot plants with him.
The next day, however, he voluntarily went to the police station and turned himself in.
Wayne Jeffords followed suit on Wednesday, Aug. 23, the day after police arrested his son again for violation of bail conditions, and walked into the Cumberland County Courthouse to face the charges against him.
This is the second big marijuana cultivation and trafficking bust by Windham police this year.
Two 16-year-old brothers are still under house arrest for allegedly growing and selling drugs out of their parent’s home on Brown Cove Road. Police searched their residence in February to find a substantial amount of marijuana, two handguns, an undisclosed sum of money and drug ledger listing the names of many Windham High School students.
These brothers were later arrested in March after they threatened a witness cooperating with the police.
“We’re getting into the harvest season now,” Sgt. David DeGruchy said of the recent marijuana busts. “So we do come across these cases with more frequency.”
Towns outside Portland and Lewiston with large areas of wood and farmland continue to be the growing grounds for large amounts of marijuana distributed in Maine, according to the Maine Drug Enforcment Agency.
It is estimated by that the majority of the marijuana sold in Maine is grown in the state, either outdoors or as indoor grow operations, said Maine DEA special agent Scott Durst.
This keeps DEA agents busy during the summer “harvest season,” he said, and very little of the marijuana sold in the inner cities of Lewiston and Portland is actually grown there.
“Windham through on to Naples and Raymond, that’s an area where there is now marijuana cultivation because it is more inland,” Durst said.
While federal and state DEA agents and local police officers exhaust hours on trying to bust large cultivation operations, often marijuana crops are found on property where the landowners have no idea what’s been growing there.
That’s why harvest season means eradication season for the DEA. They routinely do aerial flyovers this time of year to search and destroy these crops. Sometimes its only a few plants in someone’s backyard or a field of marijuana tucked off in the woods. DEA agents eradicate the illegal crop from early summer to sometimes late fall.
“We’re finding plants in the woods for the last month,” Durst said. “The growers like to get at least one frost in there, close to the end of the season.”
Last year, the DEA eradicated 9,476 plants and seized 255 pounds of processed marijuana, the majority of which was found outdoors.
In October, a grand jury will decide whether to formally indict Seth Jeffords with the charges of marijuana cultivation and trafficking. The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office has yet to review the same charges brought against his father Wayne Jeffords.
Wayne Jeffords, of Windham, turned himself in Wednesday after a warrant was put out by local police for his arrest. Jeffords was wanted in connection with an Edith Jeffords Road drug seizure last week.Send questions/comments to the editors.
