Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jun 2002
Source: Centre Daily Times (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Nittany Printing and Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact:  http://www.centredaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/74
Author: Angela Pomponio

FBI FIND MARIJUANA CROP DURING MOBILE HOME PARK RAID

COLLEGE TOWNSHIP -- The FBI's evacuation of the Hilltop Mobile Home Park 
Wednesday night uncovered a small marijuana crop growing inside a man's 
trailer.

Police said a man, whose name was not released, allegedly refused to leave 
his trailer when neighborhood residents were told to leave while the FBI 
arrested Ronald Hertzog, 39, for allegedly manufacturing and possessing 
machine guns and other "destructive devices."

State police at Rockview Trooper James P. Ellis said officers obtained a 
search warrant when the man continued to exchange words with FBI agents and 
police.

"He was the lone person to give us resistance in leaving. He just wouldn't 
come out," Ellis said. "Through the troopers' encounter with this person, 
there was enough probable cause to indicate that there was marijuana inside 
the trailer."

Ellis said the man allowed police inside his Mobile Avenue trailer with the 
warrant shortly after 10 p.m., and officers allegedly found 25 plants under 
heat lamps in one room.

The man, whose name was not released because he has not been charged yet 
with any crimes, was treated at Centre Community Hospital after he 
requested an ambulance. Ellis would not say why the man needed medical care 
other than that it was not related to the arrest.

"He knelt down when he came out of the trailer," Ellis said. "There was no 
physical takedown."

Charges likely will come after the plants are tested at a state laboratory, 
Ellis said.
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