A Love County officer fired at a burglary suspect and missed early Monday at a marijuana grow site in Courtney, Oklahoma, and the man then threw down a gun and surrendered, Sheriff Andy Cumberledge said. Courtney sits in a county whose southern line, by the sheriff's office's own description, runs against Cooke and Montague counties.
Deputies took the call around 4:40 a.m., Cumberledge said, and found Conro Dillon Vernon carrying burglar tools and trying to steal copper from the property. Officers gave commands and Vernon pulled a gun from his waistband, according to the sheriff's account. One officer fired and missed. Vernon threw the weapon on the ground and was taken into custody without further trouble, the statement said, and the gun was later found to have been stolen out of Texas.
The Love County jail logged Vernon at 7:57 a.m. Monday under booking number 26-0623. The booking record lists breaking and entering, entering with intent to steal copper, felon in possession of a firearm, use of a firearm while committing a felony, and receiving or concealing stolen property. Those charges are accusations, not findings of guilt.
An Oklahoma court docket in Carter County, case CF-2018-00328, shows Vernon pleaded guilty and received a judgment and sentence in a felony case that included firearm counts.
The U.S. Department of Energy has described copper theft as price-sensitive, and has said utilities draw thieves because substations, construction sites, storage yards, trucks and lines hold large concentrations of the metal. Federal Reserve figures, drawn from an International Monetary Fund series, put the global copper price at about $13,500 a metric ton in July. Almost seven of every ten metal thefts target copper, by the National Insurance Crime Bureau's count.
Source: FRED, IMF global copper price series, updated Aug. 17, 2026
The other side of the case carries its own recent history. Oklahoma's medical marijuana regulators counted about 9,400 licensed growers at the end of 2021 and roughly 1,800 in their Aug. 3 report this year. New grower, processor and dispensary licenses have been frozen since August 2022, and House Bill 3143 holds that freeze until 2028 unless reviews, inspections or investigations finish sooner. The state attorney general's office said in 2023 that narcotics agents had closed more than 800 illegal grows since 2021, and the governor's office said in August 2025 that agents had seized 1.7 million plants since 2022.
Oklahoma's licensed grower count fell by more than four-fifths
9,402 licensed growers
Before the state froze new grower, processor and dispensary licenses in August 2022.
1,801 licensed growers
In OMMA's Aug. 3 report. HB 3143 holds the license freeze until Aug. 1, 2028.
Source: Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority licensing and tax data
Love County has seen that enforcement up close. Narcotics agents seized 14,356 plants at an operation on Courtney Road in December 2023, in a case the bureau tied to an alleged straw-owner arrangement. A state task force reported taking about 15,000 plants near Wilson last October at a site it said lacked the required state narcotics registration. Neither the sheriff's statement nor the jail record says whether the Courtney facility where Vernon was arrested holds a state license.
_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._
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