News Cuban refugee in Vero Beach faces 30 years for drug possession

[chemlove]

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/jan/...ug/?printer=1/

VERO BEACH — When Cuban refugee Osvaldo Cruz came ashore in south Florida in mid-2006, he went to a church in Miami.
He was given some spending money to help him along.
After that, Cruz's life went downhill, Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler said Thursday.
The 34-year-old Cruz now faces up to 30 years in prison following his jury conviction Wednesday in Indian River Circuit Court in connection with a law enforcement crackdown on marijuana grow houses in Indian River County.
His conviction on charges of possession of marijuana is the latest in a string of Treasure Coast arrests in the past three years involving about 100 homes in St. Lucie County and a few in Indian River County, Butler said.
In many cases, "There is a Cuban connection," Butler said. "Owners and people involved are predominately from Cuba."
According to trial testimony, Cruz said he was given free use of a house, a job and identification in exchange for making a house in the Dixie Heights subdivision looked occupied. The garage contained an indoor marijuana-growing operation with high-intensity, 1,000-watt lightbulbs fed by power stolen from Florida Power & Light Co. A cable by-passed the meter.
The nursery even had a carbon dioxide generator to foster the growth of the plants, which were fed with liquid fertilizer, according to trial testimony by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent Michael Bartus.
Cruz was arrested July 3 as he left the home in the 300 block of 16th Place Southwest, in the Dixie Heights subdivision. Federal officials now are investigating the owner of the house and the owner's wife, according to Bartus' testimony in court.
And federal officials also are looking into whether there are connections among all the grow house operations along the Treasure Coast, Butler said.
•In December, Yoxandry Torrecilla, 31, was
sentenced to seven years in jail in connection with a garage nursery north of Vero Beach in the 7700 block of 100th Avenue, Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler said. He was convicted of trafficking in more than 25 pounds of marijuana.
•Sentencing is pending in the marijuana grow house case of Meylen Parra, 33, of the 400 block of Layport Drive, Sebastian. He plead guilty to trafficking in more than 25 pounds of marijuana taken from the house, court files show.
•Dioseleys Gonzalez, 26, of the 500 block of Brookedge Terrace, Sebastian, was recently
sentenced to a year in jail on charges of cultivation of marijuana in the house last year. Following the jail term, he is under house arrest for two years.
Court files and the State Attorneys Office






I don't know what to say 30 years for this and god only knows what the last wife beater got (cough probation).