Where there's smoke there's pot, cash, police find

3/1/2013

By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

The smell of burning marijuana wafting through a Hays apartment complex attracted Hays police and ultimately resulted in the arrest of a 32-year-old Hays man and the seizure of $23,470 in cash and 2 pounds of marijuana.

Scott E. Starbuck, 507 W. 19th, remains in the Ellis County jail, arrested on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to sell within 1,000 feet of a school and no drug tax stamp.

He was arrested Feb. 11, Hays Police Chief Don Scheibler said Thursday, but it wasn't made public to give authorities time to pursue the investigation in Colorado and elsewhere in Kansas.

Agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration pursued the case in Aurora, Colo., and seized 176 marijuana plants and processed marijuana worth an estimated $20,000.

The street value for marijuana is approximately $200 an ounce, according to the Ellis County Drug Enforcement Unit.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation followed the arrest to a second location in Kansas, where they found a second growing operation.

Scheibler said Starbuck's arrest also resulted in the seizure of items that were consistent with the sale of marijuana, including scales and bags to put the marijuana in.

Police were called to the apartment when another resident in the area reported smelling burning marijuana.

Police then tracked the odor to the apartment Starbuck was living in.