Fulton County marijuana grower gets 8 years in prison

10/22/2004

LYONS, Ohio - A 60-year-old Fulton County man was sentenced this week to eight years in prison and fined $7,500 for illegal cultivation of marijuana on his family farm.

The Multi Area Narcotics Task Force last year seized 360 pounds of the drug with a street value of more than $1 million.

Larry Ricica, of 8020 County Road S near Lyons, was convicted Monday in Fulton County Common Pleas Court, where Judge James E. Barber also ordered his driver's license suspended for one year and his pickup forfeited to the state.

The sentence was stayed pending an appeal.

Ricica was cultivating marijuana between May and October of 2003.

Authorities said last fall they found the crop trimmed and dried in a hayloft of a barn on County Road S near Evergreen High School.