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Police seize equipment
By LINDA N. WELLER
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The Telegraph/JOHN BADMAN
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Officer Marcos Pulido of the Alton Police Department carries a container of marijuana plants from a house Wednesday in the 300 block of Main Street in Alton after police executed a search warrant and found a sizeable growing operation.
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The Telegraph
ALTON - Detectives uncovered a green, leafy, illegal secret growing in the attic of a shabby white frame house Wednesday, confiscating more than 100 marijuana plants and expensive growing equipment.
Police charged Melvyn L. Curdt, the 46-year-old resident of the rental house at 324 Main St., with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor.
Lt. David Hayes of the Alton Police Department said detectives would apply today for a felony charge of unlawful production of cannabis at the Madison County State's Attorney's Office in Edwardsville.
"It was a very sophisticated system," Hayes said about the set-up in the small home on the corner of Main and Ida streets, its front hidden by overgrown trees.
Detectives made trip after trip in and out of the house, carrying out boxes and a tub filled with the spiky-leafed, potted plants of varying sizes. They brought out a number of large and small grow lights; a white plastic seedling starter frame; electric transformers; timers; carbon dioxide tanks containing nitrogen for fertilizer; a fan; small plastic bags; an air purifying system; a scale; irrigation equipment; and several containers of fertilizer, one with the brand name "Liquid Karma."
All of the equipment and plants were in the attic, police said.
The cannabis plants ranged in size from about 3 inches tall in one box to about 6 or 8 inches tall in another, with the largest group being about 18 inches tall. Hayes said it appears that the current crop was not the first generation grown in the house, as there were coarse stems and intact flowers and seeds inside.
He estimated the largest plants were only 30 to 45 days old.
One of the electric grow bulbs was about 1 foot tall and screwed into a 3-foot-diameter metal light umbrella.
"Those lights take a lot of electricity; they are meant to simulate the sun," Hayes said.
City building inspector Pat Williams said he discovered the small home's electric bill has been $400 to $500 per month.
Williams said he planned to condemn the house, which Hayes said is "in disrepair, filthy and uninhabitable."
At the scene, Hayes said he didn't believe Curdt lived at the property, but only was using it to grow cannabis. When booked into jail, though, Curdt gave that address as his residence.
"This investigation started a couple months ago from information derived at a Weed and Seed (neighborhood) meeting, and the narcotics guys have been watching this place for the last 30 days," Hayes said.
Detectives placed the address on the Nuisance Abatement Task Force's list of properties to visit on its monthly round. The task force, comprised of police, building inspectors and animal control officers, goes to properties with suspected drug activity and code violations. It is an outgrowth of the Weed and Seed neighborhood revitalization strategy.
"The Task Force is very effective; it serves its purpose," Hayes said.
He said the suspect was outside the house when task force members arrived.
"There was an unmistakable smell of cannabis coming from the residence," he said. "Sgt. (Gary) Cranmer and Detective (Seth) Stinnett talked to him to get his cooperation" to let them go inside the house, saying they knew there was a "grow" operation inside.
"He said ‘no' and tried to run in the house; he gave officers a brief struggle and fell to the ground," Hayes said. "He complained that his shoulder hurt."
Curdt was taken to Alton Memorial Hospital's emergency room and later was released to police, who booked him into the Alton City Jail.
Animal control officers Steve Bosaw and Brad Northway took two boxer dogs from the property.
Police subsequently obtained a search warrant and began searching the home a couple of hours later. Hayes said he was not familiar with Curdt from previous incidents.
With the quantity of plant-growing equipment that police confiscated, they needed a Street Department employee to bring a dump truck to use in moving out all of the materials.
Neighbors said they saw little of Curdt and did not know him.
"He's a weirdo," one man said.
Next-door neighbor Gary Lawson, 57, of the 2500 block of Ida Street, said he believes Curdt may have rented the property for three years, but only saw him when he mowed the lawn - but he would say "hi."
Lawson also said the house was quiet and did not have cars coming and going, as with a drug house.
"We have a lot of relatives on this street; it's a quiet neighborhood," Lawson said. "We never heard any noise."
He said Curdt put up a wooden privacy fence between their properties last winter.
"I didn't know him; he looked like a hippie," Lawson said. "He has a long beard and long hair."
Lawson's son, Chris, 22, said he couldn't tell whether anyone lived in the house.
Madison County property records list James E. Dickerson Jr. of Alton as the owner of the property.
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