6 arrested in area marijuana raid.

Byline: The Register-Guard

ELMIRA - Six people were arrested Thursday and marijuana worth thousands of dollars was seized from a home that deputies said was the site of a significant marijuana production operation.

Deputies with the Lane County sheriff's forest services unit got a tip a few days earlier that led to a search warrant for the house at 22481 Sheffler Road. On a 4-acre tract of land with a house and several outbuildings, deputies found a marijuana processing operation that included separate stations for seedlings and young plants, a greenhouse with more than 100 mature plants, an area where plant buds were separated from stalks and leaves, several drying areas and a packaging area.

On an adjacent 40-acre plot of former logging land, deputies found evidence that several hundred plants had been grown and harvested using an elaborate irrigation system, sheriff's Lt. Bill Thompson said. The growers had tried to conceal the plants by scattering grow sites throughout the area and hiding plants near young trees and other landscape features. The plants had a street value of between $1,000 and $5,000 each, the sheriff's office said.

Inside the house and in two nearby trailers, a large quantity of marijuana in various stages of processing and packaging was found, Thompson said. In addition to plants, deputies found more than 50 pounds of packaged marijuana at the home, he said.

Arrested were Jeffrey Schlageter, 29, of Elmira; Edward Schlageter, 20, of Islip, N.Y.; Charlie Meckel, 30, of Eugene; Brandon Meek, 20, of Elmira; Morgan Paige, 22, of Independence; and Stacy Lincoln, 24, hometown unknown. All six were being held in the Lane County Jail on charges related to the unlawful manufacture of marijuana. A 3-year-old girl found on the property was released to her mother, who was not at the house at the time of the arrests.