STRONG – Two men face charges after drug agents and police searched a house Wednesday night and found 16 pot plants growing and some packaged marijuana, police said.

Ritter Bopp, 21, and Ronal J. Cabe, 19, were arrested on misdemeanor charges of cultivating marijuana and trafficking marijuana, said Gerry Baril, special agent supervisor of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Western District Task Force Office.

A search warrant was executed at about 7 p.m. at a farmhouse the two were sharing at 286 Streeter Road after evidence of cultivating and trafficking marijuana was discovered, Baril said.

The search resulted in the discovery and dismantling of an indoor marijuana cultivation operation that employed conventional organic cultivation in large plastic pots and hydroponics cultivation, both inside a single room, using two sets of high output, eight-tube grow-light fixtures for photosynthesis, according to a police statement. There were 12 plants growing in pots, and two growing in a water solution in the room, it said.

A single marijuana plant growing in a plastic beverage container was seized from a hallway. Another potted marijuana plant bearing seeds was seized from a bathroom. In total, 16 marijuana plants, along with a 4-foot stalk stripped of leaves, evidence of prior cultivation, were seized, Baril said in a written statement.

Also seized were cut and labeled beverage liter bottles with soil residue and markings identifying a strain of marijuana plants, a vegetable dehydrator, a window screen, digital scales and six plastic baggies containing weighed portions of marijuana buds. Seeds for Power Skunk, Diesel, Gigabud, AK-47 and Purps, all high quality strains of marijuana, were also found in one of the bedrooms, further evidence of intent to cultivate, Baril said.

Cabe and Bopp were arrested and taken to the Franklin County jail in Farmington. They were released on $5,000 unsecured bail Wednesday night.

The gross weight of the processed marijuana was more than 46 grams. The approximate yield in usable marijuana from each of the plants being cultivated was estimated at about 1 ounce or less per plant, and based upon the strains being cultivated commanding an average price of $300 per ounce, the total estimated street valued was about $4,800, Baril said.