Mistaken for turkey poachers, pot farmers busted

CORNWALL — Turkey hunting season began April 28. Good news for some. Bad news for two men mistaken as poachers two days earlier in a wooded area off Everest Hill Road.

Conservation officers from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) were out on what was reportedly a pre-season routine check of hunting areas on April 26.

Everest Hill Road is a steep, narrow, winding stretch that connects Great Hollow and Valley Roads in the northeast part of town; apparently, it’s a prime turkey hunting location. There are a few houses, but it’s mostly a wooded area with rough roads leading into many unseen spots. Among these invisible sites was a spot on private property that 54-year-old Goshen resident Gary Hall apparently thought would be a good place to grow marijuana.

It was the car parked just off the road in the woods that got the attention of DEP officers (who now use the term EnCon, for Environmental Conservation police). The officers reported that they found two men in the woods, dressed in camouflage. The officers suspected them of illegal turkey hunting, and were soon chasing the fleeing men on foot through dense underbrush. One got away. He could not be located by state troopers or the K-9 unit called in to assist.

Hall was caught and told the officers that he and the other man had just planted 26 marijuana plants in the woods and they intended to cultivate them, according to the DEP report.

EnCon officers searched Hall’s home at 43 Park Road, which is off Route 4 near Tyler Lake, about 5 miles from the Cornwall site where he was captured. He told the officers that he had more marijuana plants there.

EnCon police and state troopers from Troop B in North Canaan went to Hall’s home, where they found 241 marijuana plants, more than $5,000 in cash and 17 rifles, shotguns and pistols.

Hall was charged with interfering with an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana with the intent to sell. He was released on a $10,000 bond and is to appear in Bantam Superior Court May 10.

The vehicle that the EnCon officers had initially spotted on Everest Hill Road is believed to be owned by the second suspect. It was apparently used to transport the marijuana plants. If the vehicle gives the officers enough information to identify the other man, there is likely to be enough evidence there to justify an arrest warrant.