Ohio High School Kingpin Arrested in Major Drug Bust

July 16, 2012 -- Ohio police have arrested an alleged drug kingpin, a 17-year-old accused of running a multimillion dollar ring that distributed high-grade marijuana through two school districts and netted $20,000 a month.

When cops raided the boy's bedroom at his parents' home, they found over $6,000 in cash, prosecutors said.

Authorities have not released the student's name, because he was a 16-year-old minor at the time he committed the alleged drug deals. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said the boy will be tried as juvenile.

Cops first became aware of a high-grade hydroponic strain of marijuana being sold for $350-$400 an ounce in the Mason school district near Cincinnati last year. An undercover agent began making buys at Mason High School, where the teenager was a student, and uncovered a dealing operation headed by the arrested student.

"The undercover officer uncovered six students or former students working for that individual and trafficking drugs in two school districts," Fornshell told ABC News.

"The group supplied an overwhelming amount of marijuana in the Mason and King school districts," Fornshell said.

The marijuana previously sold in the areas was a lower-grade variety smuggled into the U.S. through the border, but the weed they began seeing last year was a much more expensive product.

The student helped lead cops to uncover a major grow operation, run by locals out of warehouses and other buildings in three nearby towns.

Six other adult individuals were ultimately arrested for their role in growing and distributing the drug.

Authorities seized 600 plants from the three grow houses, with an estimated street value of $3 million.

All of the individuals have been indicted by a grand jury, but have yet to be arraigned or enter pleas.