http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1190434190268770.xml&coll=5
A Lambertville art dealer has been arrested on felony drug charges for allegedly growing 18 marijuana plants in a secluded area of someone else's farm on Kingwood-Stockton Road in Delaware Township, the New Jersey State Police announced yesterday.
George A. Wieschenberg, 46, was arrested by members of the State Police Marijuana Eradication Unit at about 2 p.m. Thursday as he entered his business, Art of Eden in the Canal Studios on North Union Street in Lambertville.
State police spokesman Capt. Al Della Fave said eradication unit Detective Matthew Mancil had been investigating Wieschenberg and his alleged crop since July, when the unit spotted the plants during one of their aerial missions.
The plants were growing in a secluded, wooded area in the middle of Springwater Farms, a 63-acre farm tract owned by Don Hart, who breeds Arabian horses on the land. Hart was unaware of the marijuana plants, Hart and the state police said yesterday.
After spotting the plants, Mancil physically inspected the site and found 18 plants that were healthy and well tended, Della Fave said.
Mancil conducted a surveillance of the plants and eventually spotted a man tending them. With the assistance of Delaware Township Police Chief Bruce Mast, Mancil identified the man as Wieschenberg.
Mancil eventually tore the plants from the ground as evidence and estimated their value at about $36,000 in drug money, Della Fave said.
Wieschenberg is charged with maintaining a drug facility and manufacturing marijuana. He was taken to the Hunterdon County Jail late Thursday in lieu of $40,000 bail.
A man who answered the phone at Art of Eden yesterday declined to comment and hung up the phone.
Art of Eden's Web site touts the business as dealing in authentic African, pre-Columbian, Asian and Oceanic arts, as well as modern art and art deco. The gallery also has a collection of Russian icons.
Hart, the farm owner, said he was unaware of the marijuana until a reporter called him yesterday, and said he does not condone such activity and that anyone who grows marijuana should be prosecuted.
The state police marijuana eradication unit has been busy in the Trenton area lately.
In early August, they assisted Hopewell Township police in the confiscation of 80 marijuana plants, each about 6 feet tall, found growing in a wooded area behind the Hopewell Valley Tennis Center. A 51-year-old Ewing man is charged with growing the plants, which have a value of about $160,000.
And in late August, the unit led a mission into the Assunpink Creek Fish and Wildlife Management Area in Roosevelt and Upper Freehold where investigators uprooted 96 marijuana plants that were 7 feet tall that the unit had previously spotted by helicopter.
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