FORT PIERCE — “The Don Corleone of the Port St. Lucie marijuana grow house operations” was sentenced Wednesday morning to 45 years in prison.

Roberto Alberto Cepero

Sonia Del Risco Polls

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FORT PIERCE — About $200,000 worth of marijuana was seized Thursday during a grow house bust by the Fort Pierce Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a police news release.

Police with the DEA arrested and charged Michael Philip Carty, 44, and his wife, Tiffany Dawn Carty, 32, both of the 1100 block of Granada Avenue, with cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana with the intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. As of Thursday evening, both were in St. Lucie County Jail in lieu of $10,500 bail. (more…)

Kobie Orande Gary, a son of prominent Stuart attorney Willie Gary, is one of three men indicted Thursday on federal charges of maintaining a grow house where authorities say they found 213 marijuana plants.

The U.S. District Court grand jury in Fort Pierce indicted Kobie Gary, 30, of Jensen Beach; Stephen Shepherd, 33, a tenant at the $125,030 home in the 7200 block of Mulberry Drive in Hobe Sound that was the alleged grow house; and Scott Daniel Gibson of Stuart. (more…)

HOBE SOUND — Kobie O. Gary, son of famed local lawyer Willie Gary, and Hobe Sound resident Steven A. Shepherd did not make any statements to investigators before being released on $10,000 bail each late Tuesday.

Kobie Gary, 30, and Shepherd, 33, were arrested Tuesday after investigators found more than 250 marijuana plants growing at the home where Shepherd lives in the 7200 block of Southeast Mulberry Drive. The relationship between the men wasn’t known.

Investigators stopped Kobie Gary as he walked out of the grow house’s front door and got in a Chevrolet Tahoe, according to the arrest affidavit. (more…)

HOBE SOUND — A son of prominent attorney Willie Gary of Stuart and a Hobe Sound man were arrested Tuesday after the Martin County Sheriff’s Office raided a Hobe Sound home used as a marijuana grow house, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Kobie Gary, 30, of Jensen Beach, and Stephen Shepherd, 33, a tenant at the $125,030 home in the 7200 block of Mulberry Drive, were each charged with cultivation of cannabis and possession of marijuana over 20 grams.

Both Gary and Shepherd posted $10,000 bond and were released about 10 p.m. Tuesday, officials said.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Authorities announced Monday they made three arrests after three Storm Grove Middle School students were hospitalized when they became ill from snorting crushed Roxycodone pain pills and using other drugs.

The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said one of the sick students, a 13-year-old girl, named students at the school who were providing prescription drugs and marijuana to her and others, Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jeff Luther said.

The Sheriff’s Office charged Halee Marie Webb, 14, of the 100 block of Harris Drive, Sebastian, and Jacob Scott Martin, 13, of the 100 block of Midvale Terrace, Sebastian, each with felony distribution of a controlled substance. Another 13-year-old girl had a juvenile affidavit filed against her for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, Luther said.
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FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a woman walking through security at the St. Lucie County Courthouse was found to have marijuana in her purse.

The sheriff’s office reports that 21-year-old Chantel Marissa Johnson was entering the courthouse Tuesday morning when a private security officer ran her purse through a scanning device. The scanner found a razor, a knife, scissors and padlock, which led to the officer to emptying out the purse. That’s when he found a small bag of what appeared to by marijuana. A field test confirmed it.

Johnson was arrested by deputies at the courthouse and charged with possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. She was later released on $500 bail.

Asked in a questionnaire by Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers for TCPalm.com’s “Ask the Candidates” page whether they had been convicted of a felony, both candidates on the ballot for state Senate District 28 seat wrote “no.”

The answer from one of the candidates isn’t accurate, according to a Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers investigation.

According to court records and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Pennsylvania, Democrat Bill Ramos, a mortgage broker from Jensen Beach, pleaded guilty to a single count of embezzlement of postal funds — accepting a three-year probation and repaying the missing money — in 1989. That charge is a felony.

Ramos said Thursday he didn’t consider pleading “no contest” the same as a conviction.

“I answered specifically as it was asked,” Ramos said. “It just said have you ever been convicted of, and I answered no. I plead no contest.”

The court documents show Ramos pleaded guilty.

Assistant State Attorney John Cannizzaro, of Florida’s 19th Judicial Circuit in Fort Pierce, said judges advise defendants before they enter a guilty plea that the action is the same as being convicted at a jury trial.

“There is no difference,” he said. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — Five men caught snipping “buds” off pot plants in a Port St. Lucie house in May 2008 face up to 11 years in prison after being convicted Friday of cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

After a four-day trial at the St. Lucie County Courthouse, a jury deliberated about four hours Thursday evening and Friday morning before reaching guilty verdicts for Reinaldo R. Ramos, 35, of Hialeah, and Jose V. Alvarez-Hernandez, 55, Luis O. Leal, 33, Manuel Gonzalez, 35, and Jose Antonio Blain, 42, all of Miami.
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Irvin Parks

Police were doing a traffic enforcement patrol along Becker Road when they stopped Irvin V. Parks at about 9 a.m. on Wednesday for driving with windows possibly tinted too dark, Officer Gerry Harrington said.

Parks had his 5- and 9-year-old children in the car when he was pulled over, Harrington said.

Police found about seven grams of marijuana hidden inside Parks’s pants, and another eight to nine grams in the trunk, where officers also found a loaded AK-47-style rifle, they said.

AK-47s are typically “the most powerful rifle you’ll see on the streets outside the military,” Harrington said. (more…)