Department of Children and Families

Parents Arrested, Children in State Custody After Raid of Alleged Hialeah Grow House

Police say grow house busted after boy's teacher noticed his clothes smelled like marijuana

A suspected marijuana grow house in Hialeah has two parents in custody and children found inside in the hands of the Department of Children and Families.

The raid happened Monday at an apartment complex on West 25th Court and West 60th Street.

Rolando Naranjo, 41, and 32-year-old Betsy Espinoza were arrested and are facing multiple counts, including marijuana possession, possession of manufacturing equipment and child neglect, Hialeah Police said.

Police say they had received a call after a teacher for the couple's 11-year-old child said his clothes smelled like marijuana. Once they entered the home, they found the parents, the 11-year-old and a four-year-old child were living in one room while the other bedroom in the apartment was being used to grow the drugs.

A police report said there was very little food in the house as well as mold growing and dirty clothes throughout the home, along with no way to prevent the kids from entering the room with the drugs.

Officials confiscated 10 marijuana plants, weighing a total of 31 pounds, along with high wattage lamps, scales, pipes and other items used for distribution and sale. The apartment is located less than 1000 feet from Ben Shepherd Elementary School.

Naranjo was ordered held on $56,000 bond at a hearing Tuesday, Espinoza was ordered held on $10,000 bond.

"I live in a home in disarray, that's not the issue. I don't have marijuana growing in my home," Judge Mindy Glazer said during the hearing. "There's no food and it's a filthy home. That's child neglect."

At a custody hearing Tuesday, it was learned the couple had three boys, and the oldest lived with his grandmother. A judge granted custody to their maternal grandmother.

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