WEST HAZLETON -- At first, police were looking for a gunman in Luzerne County, but soon found out they were dealing with a drug operation.
Officers are currently questioning three men they found inside the home on 22nd Street in West Hazleton after what they call an ironic twist in their investigation of shots fired on this street earlier on Sunday.
Blinding police lights shine in an otherwise quiet neighborhood in West Hazleton after officers got a report of shots fired. Police showed up and discovered a massive marijuana growing operation in the home.
"Ironic how the sequence of events that it was a drive by shooting first and then we find this inadvertently," explained West Hazleton Police Chief Brian Buglio.
Here's what police say happened. Officers were called to the 100 block of 22nd street in West Hazleton after getting reports that someone drove by and fired shots at a home at around 3:45 Sunday afternoon. When police began investigating, they noticed the owner of this home acting quite odd.
Chief Buglio added, "We made contact with the homeowner and he was acting very suspiciously, and we then did a protective sweep in the house and found a grow house in the basement."
A revelation that didn't surprise neighbor Irene Yeager, who has lived here for 50 years. She said, "Because you never see anybody. This is a neighborhood where you knew everybody, and all of a sudden, these people move in and we didn't know."
Chief Buglio elaborated that this wasn't a simple growing operation. "There was lights. There was a tampered electrical panel. There was insulation, it was a ventilation system. It was a grow house. There's no mistake."
A grow house discovered just in time. Buglio explained, "It's a large quantity of a grow house. It looked like it was ready to be shipped out right now."
The chief says they are working with the attorney general's office along with the drug task force as part of this investigation. Once they get a search warrant for the home, officers have a large van on scene to help remove all the marijuana.
Again, three men are police custody at this time.
The police chief does believe that the unknown driver who fired the shots here may have been sending a message to the owner of this alleged pot-growing operation.