ALBANY COUNTY — Five local men were arrested on Wednesday for growing 20 marijuana plants in their Albany home.

The Albany County Sheriff’s Department Drug Interdiction Unit acted, along with Albany city detectives, on a tip from a confidential informant that the men were growing marijuana at their 463 Washington Ave. home.

Inside the building police found 20 marijuana plants growing in three separate rooms of the basement, along with grow lamps, various growing materials, Ziplock Baggies, weighing scales, and throwing stars, which can be used as weapons, according to the sheriff’s report.

Aaron Kennedy, 19, a public safety officer for the city of Albany; Kevin Fallon, 20, a laborer at Sherman Specialty Company in Guilderland; Peter Phillips, 20, a cook for the Gingerman Restaurant in Albany; Andre Casale, 19, a clerk at a Mobile gas station in Colonie; and Brendan Allardice, 19, a clerk at the Madison Theater in Albany, were each arrested for second-degree criminal possession of marijuana, a felony, and unlawfully growing cannabis without a license, a misdemeanor, the report says.

According to the sheriff’s department, Kennedy was suspended by Albany Police Chief James Tuffey immediately following the arrest.

All five were arraigned by Albany Police Court Justice Margaret Adkins and were remanded into Albany County’s jail on $5,000 bail, the report says.

— Jarrett Carroll