Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jul 2001
Source: Daily Press (VA)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Press
Contact:  http://www.dailypress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585
Author: Tina McCloud
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

DRUG AGENTS KETCHUP TO WRONG SUSPECT

Tomato Vines, Pot Similar From The Air

MIDDLESEX - A helicopter was whomp-whomp-whomping overhead when men 
with guns drawn surrounded Glen Coberly's tomato patch about noon 
Wednesday and ordered him to the ground.

Coberly said Thursday he was picking bad tomatoes off the vines and 
throwing them in the yard when the dark green unmarked helicopter 
started circling.

About three or four minutes later, a number of people and a couple of 
police cars converged on his house, on Route 624 near Topping.

Coberly said he wasn't sure how many people were there; he guessed 10 
to 12, but Sheriff Guy Abbott said there were six or seven.

Coberly said he was ordered to lie on the ground. So was a friend who 
had hoped to take home some tomatoes, he said.

"They had their guns out," said Coberly. After a minute or two he was 
told to get up, and someone started to read him his rights, he said.

Meanwhile, one of the raiders examined the plants and determined they 
were tomatoes, not marijuana. Abbott tapped him on the shoulder as he 
was leaving and said he was sorry for the mistake.

"We're just trying to do our best to protect our citizens," the 
sheriff said Thursday. "And we're not perfect; we make mistakes."

One of the law enforcement officials who was in the helicopter said 
the operation involved the Middle Peninsula Drug Task Force, state 
police and the National Guard. They were flying over Middlesex to 
look for marijuana plants, said the officer. He asked not to be 
identified because he works undercover.

He said he and the helicopter pilot, who flies numerous marijuana- 
spotting missions, believed the plants were marijuana because they 
were the right color. However, the color can be mistaken on an 
overcast day like Wednesday, the officer said.

He said Coberly came out of the house carrying a tarpaulin and then 
started picking things up off the ground, which the officers thought 
was suspicious.

Coberly, 39, said he has lived in the house for about six years and 
in the neighborhood more than 30.

No one was arrested as a result of the day's operations, the officer said.

He said Coberly has never been charged with a drug offense.

"I don't touch the stuff," said Coberly. "But I do like tomatoes."

He'll have more for himself this summer.

His friend told him he would never come to see him again.
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