Leon Williams went to closing to purchase the dwelling at 119 Springwood Drive in Fredericksburg on March 15 only to learn it was being seized by the state as a drug house. rdt

Fredericksburg dwelling was pot grower's secret greenhouse, warehouse, authorities say

By KARI PUGH

Date published: 3/23/2004

Police: City man was major marijuana supplier

Leon Williams had already plopped down more than $1,000 for new carpet and toiled away an afternoon starting a fence for his Schnauzers.

He'd spent a stressful month enduring the loan process and selling his house in Caroline County.

But 15 minutes before closing on his dream home, a phone call from Fredericksburg Circuit Court changed everything.

The secluded, cedar-sided home on a hill in Fredericksburg's Alum Spring neighborhood was now surrounded by crime scene tape--and state police had just filed paperwork to seize it as a drug house.

"And just like that, I've got no place to live," he said.

Williams, 46, never imagined he'd have a problem with the seller, Barbara Hooten Beck.

She is the ex-wife of Stafford County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge David Beck and former sister-in-law to city Mayor Bill Beck.

But according to state police, her son, 27-year-old John David McCue Beck, is one of the region's top marijuana suppliers. Authorities allege he used his mother's $280,000 house at 119 Springwood Drive not only to grow marijuana, but to warehouse large quantities shipped in from New York.

When Williams bid on the house Feb. 19, he didn't know the state police Blue Ridge Narcotics Task Force had raided it last summer as part of an investigation into "large-scale marijuana trafficking from New York to Virginia."

But the March 13 arrest of the investigation's target is exactly what led to Williams' loss.

That Saturday morning, a state trooper spotted a black 1995 BMW without an inspection sticker on southbound I-95 just north of U.S. 17 in Stafford.

Trooper E.D. Brown stopped the car about 7:50 a.m., and noticed the strong odor of marijuana as he approached.

Inside, he found a small amount of suspected marijuana in a plastic bag "for personal use," state police Sgt. Gary Settle said.

The driver and his two passengers were arrested, then troopers did a more thorough search of the BMW. In the trunk, they found a black duffel bag stuffed with 13 plastic bags of suspected marijuana buds, according to Settle.

"This is high-grade marijuana with a high street value," he said. "There was one pound in each bag."

Police describe the type of marijuana found as high-potency "BC Bud" from Canada.

It had a street value of over $600,000, Settle said.

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Date published: 3/23/2004