Marijuana grow operation found by road patrol

Sgt. Madnick with some of the Marijuana plants.

Key Largo – A Key Largo man is in jail on marijuana charges after a road patrol sergeant caught him processing marijuana plants he had growing in his house.

Sgt. Jason Madnick was dispatched to 214 Loeb Avenue in Key Largo at 9:30 p.m. to check out a report of a possibly suicidal person. When he knocked on the door of a trailer at that address, a man yelled “Come in!” When Sgt. Madnick opened the door, he saw 49 year old Joseph Ebeling sitting in a chair, cutting up a marijuana plant. There were several more plants near his chair. Ebeling saw Sgt. Madnick at the door and uttered an expletive.

Sgt. Madnick asked him for his identification. Ebeling said, “I can’t go to jail for this, I was arrested by you guys 10 years ago for the same thing.” He then asked Sgt. Madnick if they could just throw the plants out and act as if nothing happened.

Deputy Ian Barnett responded as back up and Ebeling was taken into custody. At that point, Sheriff’s Office narcotics detectives were notified and responded to the residence for further investigation.

A search warrant was obtained. A search turned up 124 marijuana plants and one pound of processed marijuana, along with pipes for smoking the drug, a digital scale and growing equipment. Ebeling was arrested. He was charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession of a felony amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia and he was taken to jail.