BURLINGTON — A former Tinmouth man has pleaded innocent in U.S. District Court in Burlington to a charge of possession of six rifles, shotguns and handguns while being an unlawful user of controlled substances in Rutland County last October.
Lucas Hughes, 29, also denied a separate felony charge of growing 50 or more marijuana plants, records show.
Hughes admitted membership in the outlaw motorcycle club known as the “Devil Disciples,” a court affidavit said. Hughes said he had dropped out, but the outlaw club had never retrieved his leather vest with the Devil Disciples patch, the affidavit noted.
When 86 marijuana plants were found in grow rooms in his home last month, Hughes told investigators he needed extra money to help pay his $3,000 a month house rent, court records said. He said he worked full-time nearly seven days a week.
A federal judge agreed to release Hughes following his arraignment earlier this week. He signed his release papers saying he now lives in Whitehall, New York.
The drug and gun investigation began to blossom when a court-ordered search warrant was issued in early October as part of a marijuana grow operation at Hughes’ home on White Birch Drive in Tinmouth, State Police Detective Jeffrey W. Stephenson said in court papers.
State police had gone to the home Oct. 1 to try to find Hughes to serve a subpoena on him in connection with a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation in New Hampshire, FBI Agent Colin Simons wrote in his affidavit. The police did not find Hughes but found signs of a major indoor marijuana grow, Simons wrote.
The following day Vermont State Police and FBI returned with a search warrant for the red and gray-colored residence. Investigators found Althea Bruno inside, but instead of opening the door, Bruno got on her cellphone and ran up a set of stairs to the third story, Stephenson wrote.
Stephenson’s affidavit said officers attempted to gain entry. Once the door was breached, officers directed Bruno to come outside, but she offered few comments, said Stephenson, a member of an FBI Task Force in Southern Vermont.
Various prescription pills were found, along with 86 suspected marijuana plants in varying stages of growth in two large rooms in the basement, Stephenson said. Each room was arranged with grow lamps, air filters, watering systems, chemicals and other components to facilitate the cultivation and manufacture of marijuana, he wrote.
Suspected psychedelic mushrooms, a glass-smoking pipe and a small amount of marijuana were located in a kitchen cabinet, the affidavit said.
The indictment said Hughes possessed two 12-gauge shotguns, a .30-06 rifle, a Glock 10mm handgun, a .38 special revolver, and a 7.62 X 38 revolver in October 2018. He told investigators that he owned them all, except for one shotgun that belonged to his girlfriend’s father.
Hughes said he only owned a motorcycle, but had borrowed a pickup truck that belonged to an “ex-friend,” who had been recently arrested in New Hampshire on gun and drug charges.
The truck had been retrieved in August 2018 by the ex-friend about the time he was arrested on the federal drug charges in New Hampshire, records indicate. They show the friend, Richard Duncan was sentenced on June 17 in federal court to 87 months in prison.
Hughes told investigators that he had left his pistol in the truck and police in New Hampshire confirmed that a 9mm pistol was recovered in the truck, Stephenson said.
Bruno told investigators Hughes worked at General Electric and had started living with her in February 2018, but have stopped. She said she witnessed Hughes use methamphetamines, steroids, cocaine and marijuana in the past, Stephenson said.
Bruno said Hughes talked about putting money away in a Bitcoin account — a form of electronic cash.
A federal grand jury in Rutland indicted Hughes in late July, but the records were sealed until he could be found and arrested this week, records show.
Stephenson has asked a judge for permission to search Hughes’ computer for evidence of manufacturing controlled substances, possession of firearms to further drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms, record show. The computer, which is at the State Police evidence locker in Rutland, has two stickers: “Death Wish Coffee Co.” and “Used Oil,” records show.
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Source: Rutland Herald