By Wendy Anders

Wednesday police responded to an alert received on their free anonymous report line, 1176, regarding suspicious activity in a house in San Antonio de Escazú, a mountainous suburb west of San José, according to official sources.

The Security Ministry’s anti-drug police reported discovering hydroponic marijuana being cultivated by a 60-year-old U.S. citizen by the last name of Jarvis, who has Costa Rican residency, and a man named León, both of whom have no prior convictions.

Police confiscated 61 fully grown plants measuring some as tall as 1.79 meters, plus 2,656 marijuana joints and 186.5 grams of buds, as well materials typically used for growing hydroponic marijuana including fans, lamps, thermometers, chemicals for cultivation, bags, pesticides, and insecticides.

Both men are being held for investigation by the pubic prosecutors office, said the Security Ministry.