Question for growers who have been raided

[ItsGrowTime]

Simple question here and if nobody responds I'll completely understand. Im not worried about any imminent search, just looking for fyi info.

How thorough was the raid and search? I've been thinking about ways to stash stuff here and there (aside from remote locations) and wondered how thorough searches really are. Was it just a tossing of the general surroundings or were your walls busted open? How about checking HVAC ducting and vents? Carpets pulled out? Etc. Dogs brought in? Y'all get my point.

 

[Goosie]

Simple question here and if nobody responds I'll completely understand. Im not worried about any imminent search, just looking for fyi info.

How thorough was the raid and search? I've been thinking about ways to stash stuff here and there (aside from remote locations) and wondered how thorough searches really are. Was it just a tossing of the general surroundings or were your walls busted open? How about checking HVAC ducting and vents? Carpets pulled out? Etc. Dogs brought in? Y'all get my point.

Every search that I have ever seen, its best to GET RID of EVERYTHING. Don't try to hide anything in the house or in the yard, because they will literally spend hours searching until they find what they want if they know its there.

I've been in a house that was raided by DEA, and we were all handcuffed for well over an hour while they ripped open couch cushions, busted up walls, ripped up carpet... Everything gets searched, even the kids cereal. (hell, I even saw a video of them taking breaks to play WII for a few hours...)

Best bet would be move everything incriminating. I've seen success with people leaving their equipment and replacing them with legal plants. Clean everything very good to make sure there is not a single piece of proof that marijuana was being grown there. Also a good wipe of your hard drive would make it harder to prove that those lights and nutrients are for marijuana instead tomatoes in court (if it makes it that far).

 

[dtfsux]

my story was different than Goosie, DEA and local task force.

Took desktops, laptops, money, 4 wheelerss, and other toys.

They went to my daughters room and left her red laptop on the bed. maybe they didnt see it since it blended in with the comforter.

They left an external hard drive, they left cameras and camcorders.

They left some large rubbermaid bins untouched. They left a trimming machine covered in resin.

They went through EVERY piece of paper in my home office took alot of receipts, and various other paperwork.


In no way did they destroy anything, I guess there was enough in plain sight

 

[Goosie]

my story was different than Goosie, DEA and local task force.

Took desktops, laptops, money, 4 wheelerss, and other toys.

They went to my daughters room and left her red laptop on the bed. maybe they didnt see it since it blended in with the comforter.

They left an external hard drive, they left cameras and camcorders.

They left some large rubbermaid bins untouched. They left a trimming machine covered in resin.

They went through EVERY piece of paper in my home office took alot of receipts, and various other paperwork.


In no way did they destroy anything, I guess there was enough in plain sight

I think it really depends on the judge that signs the warrant, and what they believe is there. Where I was at they thought there was large amounts of cocaine and found 4 people playing Spades smoking weed and drinking. Probably why everything got tore up.

My friend got an armed robbery/agg assault charge like two years ago and beat it because they couldn't find the gun. We found out it was in a shoebox in his closet when he came home from court...

So the best thing to do is get rid of everything if you know their coming, but if you don't then hope your lucky and get a lazy group of cops. Better safe then sorry if you know their coming.

 

[pimpjuice]

When I got raided they checked a lot of places. In the water heater closet they cut into the dry wall, they pulled out washer, dryer, dishwasher. Flipped over all the furniture, got into my 3000$ dollar speakers. Took computers, cameras, flashcards, but ironically left my portable hardrives & didn't take the 8000$ stereo but took a flat screen tv. Didn't take any of my pre-paid cellphones, I had about 6 of them sitting on the counter next to a volcano they didn't take. They didn't seem to check my backyard very well or climb under the deck. They took a large sum of cash and didn't report 'finding it' (probably more than he made in a year, and at the time not enough to make me drive to my safe house to drop it off, which they never found). They left me some nugs & a pipe, they put that where they found my passport (how nice). They took every shred of paper they could find.

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

When I got raided they checked a lot of places. In the water heater closet they cut into the dry wall, they pulled out washer, dryer, dishwasher. Flipped over all the furniture, got into my 3000$ dollar speakers. Took computers, cameras, flashcards, but ironically left my portable hardrives & didn't take the 8000$ stereo but took a flat screen tv. Didn't take any of my pre-paid cellphones, I had about 6 of them sitting on the counter next to a volcano they didn't take. They didn't seem to check my backyard very well or climb under the deck. They took a large sum of cash and didn't report 'finding it' (probably more than he made in a year, and at the time not enough to make me drive to my safe house to drop it off, which they never found). They left me some nugs & a pipe, they put that where they found my passport (how nice). They took every shred of paper they could find.

*did all ofyour phones ring while they were there?
-did they go through them? (numbers/txt etc)

*money
-did they put it in there evidence bag?
-did they allow you to see that they found it?
-did you plea? why not rat out the pigs took ur cash?
(assuming u had lawyer?)complex i know.
just dosent seam right



myself-
i was in a raid, but they were looking for chemicals, stumbled onto(my friends) hermi and (my) patio plant...myfriend took the blamefor both plants-nothing ever came of it
and the raid was for one of my other buddies(friend #2;we were living in his girlfriends house)
like a bunch of animals cutting carpet and random holes in the wall ... ripping apart cushions but not the coutch...looked up the chimeny...
the fridge was the first place they looked...
followed by toilet....

mostly piled everything they could in the middle of the room....

even my landlord was on my side and filed a formal complaint(won over 50k) for damages, they fucked shit up.

took all my fireworks, never put them on the report(expensive mortars20$+ a piece ones. seriouse shit) took all my camras(firewire) but not the pc....they did allow me to show them the "videos" folder and such. as they were concerned about being recorded. but didnt press when they saw the pc take like 2min to bootup infront of them. oh i was in cuffs at the time, behind my back. you try and mouse backwards.. they said show them or theylltake thepc.

they broke my friends bong on the toilet(breaking the toilet, causing flooding and water damage) but left my sac alone, the only thing left on my dresser(but moved it from my "stoner box"to the dresser.) 2-3grams..

funny experiance really.

oh and they came in nissan altimas on chrome 20's minivans and unmarked cars.

ironicaly they left there clipboard on my banister ouside the front door, and the dood they wanted, thinking he had keys of meth. had a .5# with bags and scale.

 

[dtfsux]

Didn't take any of my pre-paid cellphones, I had about 6 of them sitting on the counter

There may be a reason for that, not sure what. I forgot but I had a bunch of burners that they had to see on the counter and in drawers where they took paper. They left all of them. I did have my personal PDA phone on me in my car and they kept that for evidence.

Maybe cause we were obviously pegged as large growers, and they found a few plants, plus 10+ # in my car, they felt they found everything.


Doesnt matter who signs the warrant. The warrants are standard format and basically they can take anything they want

 

[Goosie]

oh and they came in nissan altimas on chrome 20's minivans and unmarked cars.

They are changing up their cars a lot. I saw a 92 impala on some 22's (with the 22" decal and everything) with the cop lights in the windows. Even got some unmarked chargers on (non-factory) chrome rims.

 

[pimpjuice]

I wasn't at home or even in the state for that matter when I was raided. The phones appeared exactly as I left them on the counter, none of them were on. None of my custy's got into trouble, which was nice because we still had a couple hockey bags worth to unload. They pretty much left a wake of destruction everywhere they searched.

Ultimately we struck a plea for $$, it was a fed case and with no informant the prosecutor decided a large 6 figure number would buy us 'cooperation', so we got 5k1's for $ we were first time offenders with no records.

The drug taskforce that stole my money kind of did me a favor, it definitely minimized my case. In a federal case they convert cash siezed into pounds of weed, so it would have raised my sentencing level. I've got less than a year left on paper. It's funny (or sickening), that the drug taskforce officer (the local police drug task force raided, DEA picked up the case) that signed my warrant has retired and moved to europe he looked like he was about 35 years old, I'm guessing he stole *a lot* of money during his career in law enforcement. At my sentencing I asked the DEA agents where he was and they said he was in switzerland with his g/f LOL. He has since retired in less than 3 years and left the country, go figure.

I should also say the task force that raided us drove seized vehicles, one of them was in a hummer. A friend told me that's what he saw when he drove by.

*did all ofyour phones ring while they were there?
-did they go through them? (numbers/txt etc)

*money
-did they put it in there evidence bag?
-did they allow you to see that they found it?
-did you plea? why not rat out the pigs took ur cash?
(assuming u had lawyer?)complex i know.
just dosent seam right

 

[Bill164Approved]

EVERY PART OF THE PROPERTY IS SEARCHED

That means all along the fences, through the gardens, in your attics, garage, basement, old shack in the back, everything. They will most always bring a K9 and have it sniff the entire place to look for anything and everything they can charge you with. Tech guys from the government will go through your computers and phones to find any incriminating evidence. Your bank accounts and all expenses will be looked through. Background checks, employment history, the whole shibang. But this will likely only happen if you are busted by DEA or State Police. Local cops dont have the time or resources to investigate deeply. Feds and State level though, want a conviction every time they kick in a door.

*did all ofyour phones ring while they were there?
-did they go through them? (numbers/txt etc)

*money
-did they put it in there evidence bag?
-did they allow you to see that they found it?
-did you plea? why not rat out the pigs took ur cash?
(assuming u had lawyer?)complex i know.
just dosent seam right

-Everyone in the house had their phones looked through by the same officer and again by the captain.

-The arrest warrant was for my friend . Any money in his wallet, room, or closet they took and put in evidence bags.
-They didnt find shit. My friend was dealing with chemo and couldnt be handcuffed without alot of pain, so he showed them everything he had hidden (that he thought was illegal. they later took the cash and receipts). He even told them where his rainy day stash jar was hidden up in the attic (had close to 20 different types of 6months-1year old bud).

I know your questions prolly werent directed towards me, but thats what happened during my experience with the DEA Cartel.

 

[arcticjake]

My show was fairly small and maybe they were 'tuckered out' after taking down bigger ops but they left me with a bit herb. One bud about 7 gms was left out obviously 'cause I was gonna need it when I found the mess. All totalled they left about 4 oz of various buds, 14 gm shrooms and 1000's of seeds all in the fridge. They also vandalized some my eqmt (but left a 1k HPS and 6' trak which I wasn't using) but removed some other pieces.

Jake

 

[UptownHaze]

arcticjake where/how did you store the shrooms?

 

[extreegrowerrr]

all depends who raids the home...and what the warrant is for....were talking pot so if the DEA gets involved your part of a huge growing network. if police just knock and come in its very minimal and there more than likely just robbing you so they dont search to much. if you get a vice and narcotics squad they rob you and want to throw you behind the big cage.
i was raided by vice they took phones, computers, trimmings, lights, ballasts, destroyed alot of stuff and tore through everything they could. there is no privacy for phones now an the machine cost like 25,000 nore do they need a warrant to tap it. so they usually raid your house based on your phone taps. what you said over the phone. if you say you got 2000 in your ac ducts well guess what your ac ducts are coming apart! lol
quite simple

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

.. DEA Cartel.

hahahahaha

 

[Cone Head]

I know someone who got done a few years back here in Australia. They caught him red handed trimming with some plants still left in the yard (outdoories). He was very lucky as he had two weighed out pounds of some bud he had harvested a couple of weeks prior, on the kitchen bench.
The cops were in the shed where all the trimming was happening and hadn't gone in the house yet. He said he had left the oven on and asked if he could turn it off. For some reason they let him in the house by himself and he stuffed the pounds in the bottom of one of those chest freezers with the racks in the top, under a big pile of frozen meat. When looking through the house they peeked in the freezer, lifted the rack but didn't bother to take out all the meat. As a result, the weighed pound's were not found and he only go done with cultivation instead of cultivation with intent to sell. He was lucky, although the cops around here do tend to be a bit lazy when busting grows.

 

[Pythagllio]

I had currency stashed in a very large book as well as a couple of dozen hits of acid. That's one bill per page, large book, don't know if it would work every time. That would have cost me a couple of grand and an extra felony charge had they opened that book.

Your heat/ac vents is one place they won't likely miss.

They also didn't open any frozen dinners but they did dump the breakfast cereal.

There will definitely be dogs involved if the warrant was the result of an investigation.

They took 6 rolls of aluminum foil and called it 'indicia of distribution'. Hey, has anyone ever in their life gotten cannabis wrapped in foil? I mean bought commercial cannabis from a real dealer who packaged it such? Almost 33 years and to date I haven't.

They also confiscated a box of marital aids. That's one I'll never figure out. They're not illegal and why would you want somebody's used marital aids even if free for the stealing?

 

[Green&Gold]

I saw the aftermath of a compassion club raid, it was a mess, they took all sorts of things including the vac sealer, but left three clones in a homemade bubble cloner, and another one that was on a desk in small pot. They left about 7-10 grams total in the entire shop, and it was all skag, and shake. Almost all computers were taken. They ripped a mother out of the pot and left her on the floor. They took tonnes of stick and weighted/counted it as bud... But the best part is they left the security camera PVR. So all the footage of the raid was put on YouTube for the world to see!!! Including one of the cops bitch-slapping a club member.

 

[supermanlives]

when my friend got busted they cut through a wall with a chainsaw to access a hidden room.went through the place tapping on walls and went through everything

 

[ZackMorris]

Good thread. Anyone know of good methods for hiding cash besides burying jars at the park or giving it to other people to hold? Im assuming if they want they can clean out your bank account which is why i ask. I wonder if you can open a savings account using a fake name and not having to show id? Doubt it.

 

[SmokyMtnToker]

Warrants are supposed to be specific, describing in detail the things to be seized and or the places to be searched. If they tear into walls and destroy property without good reason, such as info that it is there, or indications by a dog, they can be sued for damgaes.

Of course it could cost more to file a claim and pursue it than the property is worth...thats how the scumbags get their rocks off...the pigs have tiny peckers and love violence to get off...sick fucks.

But there are rules about speificity on warants, even tho it is hard to pursue.