Man Caught with 500 Pot Plants to Serve 14 Months in Prison

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A Johnston man will spend just over a year in prison for running a marijuana-growing operation in his house that yielded more than 500 pot plants when raided by authorities.

Timothy Michael Lantz, who lived at 7323 Longboat Drive in Johnston when federal authorities arrested him in September 2012, pleaded guilty to marijuana manufacturing in February. The Des Moines Register reports Lantz was sentenced Friday to spend 14 months in federal prison, much less than the projected 18 months to 40 years outlined in a plea agreement filed earlier this year.

The Sept. 19 marijuana raid at Lantz's house netted more than 500 pot plants in various stages of growth.

This winter authorities asked a federal judge to order the forfeiture of the house at 7331 Longboat Drive in Johnston, as well as two vacant lots a block away from the house, at 7336 and 7320 Dawn Drive, according to the Des Moines Register. Federal prosecutors said they intended to use similar procedures to seize the house at 7323 Longboat Drive, where Lantz was arrested amid hundreds of marijuana plants.

Documents list Lantz as the contract purchaser of the house where he lived. Court papers say he’s also the registered agent and only member of Alec Slinwinski LLC, a limited-liability corporation that owns the three other properties.

Our Earlier Story

More than 500 marijuana plants were seized during a drug bust at a Johnston house Wednesday.

The Des Moines Register reported Timothy Lantz was charged with knowingly and intentionally manufacturing marijuana after the plants were found at a home at 7323 Longboat Drive in Johnston Wednesday morning.

According to court documents, agents were first alerted to the growing operation in November 2010, after a manager at a storage unit northeast of Des Moines found growing materials including 500 plastic posts and 40 Harvest Pro 600 Watt inverters, the Register reported.

Detectives then tracked the names on the lease to a Facebook page showing a man holding marijuana plants. The same man was also linked to a second house searched on Wednesday at 7212 Longboat Drive.

Court documents revealed authorities removed roughly 150 small marijuana plants and 400 potted plants from the home at 7323 Longboat.

KCCI.com reports a neighbor tipped Johnston Police to the house in April 2012 regarding a suspicious activity.

In Wednesday's raid, the TV station quotes court documents that say agents found hundreds of potted marijuana "plants within the basement in various stages of growth, along with sophisticated electrical systems, lighting systems, ventilation systems, and watering systems that had been installed within the residence to support the indoor marijuana grow operation."