Frank Fleet

A man who tended a crop of more than 500 marijuana plants inside a Botetourt County barn was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison.

Frank Fleet, 54, was arrested at his home in the Lithia community last March during a raid by state police.

At the time, police estimated the drug's street value at $1.5 million and described the "extremely sophisticated" operation as the largest found in the region in recent memory.

After an undercover investigation led them to Fleet's home, police discovered marijuana hung up to dry in a setup similar to a tobacco barn, Commonwealth's Attorney Joel Branscom said.

The leaves already had been sorted and tagged with names such as Slow Train and Mad Dog.

Alerted to the sound of running water, police discovered a false wall and door built to conceal an elaborate growing and irrigation system in another part of the building.

"Marijuana was basically everywhere," Branscom said.

While some of the plants were being cultivated in pots beneath high-powered electric lights, authorities suspected that other parts of the crop were grown outdoors.

Police also found seven rifles and five handguns. Fleet had been charged with possession of the guns in connection with drug distribution, but that charge was dropped.

On the remaining charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Fleet pleaded guilty and received a 10-year sentence from Circuit Court Judge Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo. All but three years were suspended as part of a plea agreement.

Defense attorney Richard Lawrence said there were no complaints about disturbances or heavy traffic at Fleet's property, as there often are with drug-dealing operations.

"Nobody in the neighborhood had any idea what was going on in that barn," he said.

A cabinetmaker by profession, Fleet apparently turned to cultivating marijuana in bad economic times.

"Mr. Fleet was a gardener and an experimenter," Lawrence said. "I didn't know there were so many kinds of marijuana."