WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsEau Claire Deputies Uncover Major Marijuana Operation
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Eau Claire (WQOW) - The home was empty, but what investigators found in the garage has an Eau Claire man in hot water.
Daniel Vidaillet was arrested. He's accused of turning a garage into a place to grow marijuana, a lot of marijuana.
A specially built room was discovered with more than 300 plants valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Eau Claire County Sheriff Ron Cramer says the investigation into the growing operation on Lowes Creek Road started the same way most good investigations start.
"From the street level, from a traffic stop where officers recognized that there's more than just the marijuana, more than just the drug paraphernalia found," says Sheriff Cramer.
Eventually, what they learned during that traffic stop and other search warrants executed throughout Eau Claire led them to a home on Lowes Creek Road. No one lives in the home, but it's obvious the garage has been well-used. Sheriff Cramer says a well-orchestrated growing operation was found with more than 300 marijuana plants.
"A room within the garage that they had fabricated, possibly a 20X20 room with 6 to 8 grow lights, incubation area for the seed to grow into a small plant, the next step of taller plants, air conditioning units, he had a 220 electrical wire that he had his own box made up for the distribution of power within the garage," says Sheriff Cramer.
There was also a CO2 cylinder to help the plants grow, along with a number of pot growing books. The property was being rented by Daniel Vidaillet and law enforcement agents believe he rented it for the sole purpose of growing pot.
"It was up and operating when they executed the warrant, no one was at the residence at the time," says Cramer. "It appears, all indication, that they rented it just for the purpose of the space to grow marijuana and to be undetected."
Vidaillet was in court Friday and could face drug charges. Another person was arrested and law enforcement are looking for anyone else that might be connected to the growing operation.
