The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest on Tuesday (9/26) of an Arcadia resident following a 2 month long investigation that began in August, in to the suspicion of an unlicensed marijuana indoor grow plant.
Deputies arrested Danny DeSantis, age 39, of 3981 Buffalo Road, Arcadia for Unlawful Possession of Marihuana in the First Degree, for possessing 10 pounds or more of marijuana, a class C Felony, and Unlawful Growing of the Plant Known as Cannabis, a class A Misdemeanor.
Investigators received information that DeSantis maybe growing cannabis on his property. Investigators were able to secure a search warrant which allowed for the use of technology known as FLIR, Forward Looking Infrared, or more commonly known as Thermal Imaging. This technology was utilized to determine that one of the buildings on DeSantis’ property was admitting an abnormal amount of heat for a building with no known source of electricity.
According to sources, DeSantis built an unpermitted 30 feet wide by 50 feet long pole barn in the least intrusive part of his property. Although DeSantis built the barn with knowledge of possible heat detection, the eaves and walls of the building showed ‘hot’ on the thermal imaging fly-over.
With this information, and additional investigation techniques, another search warrant was requested and subsequently issued by Arcadia Town Justice Art Williams.
Upon the service of the new search warrant, it was discovered that the pole barn was, in fact, harboring a marijuana growing facility. “This guy was a genius to put all this shit together. This was one of the top sophisticated labs. He spent a ton of money just for the infrastructure There were CO2 tanks, meters regulators for temperature and humidity”, said a source in law enforcement. The building also had extremely sophisticated lights. The marijuana grow facility was hooked into a nearby pond with hoses that fed a sprinkler and water mister system to cool the roof.
Approximately 300 cannabis plants, in various states of growth, were located in the pole barn. The pole barn, was designed with three different “grow” rooms, one large “drying” room, and an office area where further processing of the plant was conducted, producing the end product, marijuana.
Also located on the property was a highly concentrated form of THC, street names of “Dabs”, and “Butane Butter”. The result of processing marijuana using butane results in a product that can be up to 97% pure THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the chemical compound in cannabis responsible for a euphoric high
Also located on the property was 13 pounds of marijuana sealed in half pound heat sealed plastic bags, with more to be weighed by the laboratory.
Deputies took both DeSantis and his wife, Mary DeSantis, into custody. Mary DeSantis, who was the director of Outpatient Services for the Finger Lakes Area Counseling and Recovery Agency (FLACRA), was not charged and was released.
DeSantis was brought before the Town of Arcadia Court for arraignment. Due to DeSantis’ extensive criminal history with six prior felony and eight misdemeanor charges, he was remanded to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Jail. Danny DeSantis has been released. The Wayne County District Attorney’s Office indicated his preliminary hearing has been waived and the case will be presented to a grand jury.
It was discovered that DeSantis had circumvented the electric meter by splicing onto the electric feed-line before the meter goes into his home. NYSEG was contacted and responded to the scene to assist deputies with determining the splicing locations.
Further investigation is being conducted in the suspected theft of services related to electric usage with more charges pending.
Newark Police Department, and the Town of Arcadia Code Enforcement assisted on scene.
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