SEBEC – Police made two arrests on Monday in connection with a lengthy investigation into a large indoor marijuana-growing operation in this rural Piscataquis County town.

Sheriff’s deputies and federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials seized 1,365 plants from a Hughes Road home owned by David Ernest Velli, 57.

“This is something that has been in the works for about a year,” Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin said Tuesday night. “We’ve been gathering bits and pieces for awhile and it all fell together finally.”

While Velli was the home’s owner, another man – Adam St. Louis, 27, of Sangerville – was living there when police searched the home on Monday afternoon.

Goggin said St. Louis was growing and tending the marijuana himself and even bragged to police about his knowledge of the subject.

“He was quite cooperative and displayed some bravado about his part [in the operation],” the sheriff said of St. Louis.

Goggin declined to guess the street value of the marijuana but said some officials estimate that a mature plant is worth $500, meaning roughly $680,000 worth of marijuana was growing inside the home. Police also recovered three firearms, including an assault rifle.

St. Louis was arrested and charged with aggravated cultivation of marijuana, but could face additional charges, the sheriff said.

After authorities learned that Velli was the home’s owner, a warrant was obtained to search another home owned by Velli on Davidson Road in Abbot.

Goggin said Velli and St. Louis were known to be working together in the operation.

Sure enough, inside Velli’s farmhouse in Abbot, authorities found several bags of marijuana, paraphernalia, a safe containing even more pot and some cash, and “enough ammunition to start a small war,” the sheriff said.

Velli was arrested and charged with aggravated trafficking in marijuana and aggravated cultivation of marijuana.

Like St. Louis, he also could face additional charges. Velli also is a felon who was convicted in a string of burglaries in Connecticut during the 1970s, Goggin said.

Both men were taken to Piscataquis County Jail on Monday but had posted bail as of Tuesday night.

Goggin did not know when the men would be making an initial court appearance, but said the case would be turned over to federal prosecutors based on the large volume of marijuana and the fact that firearms were involved.