Thread: INDOOR POT FARMS RAID: LA SUBURBS

Busts point to boom in indoor pot farms
In the last year, crops worth $100 million have been seized in the state. Two homes were raided outside L.A. this week.
By Andrew Blankstein and Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writers
April 6, 2007


California is in the midst of a major boom in large-scale marijuana cultivation operations run from inside homes, with authorities confiscating more than $100 million worth of pot in the last year alone, including in a series of recent raids in the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration say the number of indoor marijuana plants seized by federal, state and local authorities in California has quadrupled in just the last three years, from at least 54,000 plants to nearly 200,000 in 2006.

Many of those seizures have occurred in middle-class and upscale suburbs, where the pot growers took advantage of cheap home financing — and minimal credit checks — to purchase homes and remodel them into sophisticated farms, authorities said.

Using equipment that can cost as much as $75,000, the homes were transformed into illicit greenhouses complete with blacked-out windows, sophisticated irrigation, high-powered and timed lighting and ventilation devices to hide the smell of the plants.

"They have cropped up in neighborhoods like never before," said Gordon Taylor, who heads the DEA office in Sacramento. "I am not talking about the Cheech and Chong marijuana cultivation of two plants in someone's closet. I am talking about organized crime groups who are purchasing homes in our communities and creating marijuana factories."

Local authorities have discovered at least six indoor suburban pot farms in just the last month — including two this week in Rowland Heights.

The homes have been clustered throughout upscale suburbs with large Asian populations, including Diamond Bar and Chino Hills.

The Los Angeles and San Bernardino County sheriff's departments have arrested half a dozen people and expect more arrests as the investigations continue.

Since last August, officials in Northern California have arrested 16 people and seized 50 suburban pot homes and 24,000 pounds of marijuana linked to an Asian organized crime syndicate operating in Canada and the U.S.

DEA officials estimate there are 21,000 residential marijuana operations, primarily on the west coasts of Canada and the U.S., and authorities have reported cases in Florida, Georgia and parts of the East Coast.

The boom has occurred as law enforcement has cracked down on marijuana cultivation in forests and canyon parklands.

A recent series of busts in the hillsides and canyons of Orange County culminated last fall with the discovery of up to 20,000 plants flourishing in a hilly park alongside million-dollar homes in a gated Mission Viejo neighborhood. Authorities said they discovered the crop — which was the largest in the county's history, with a potential retail value of $12.5 million — by following an irrigation system that sprang from the local homeowners association's water supply.

Authorities said the field was hidden beneath brush and other vegetation in an attempt to thwart the county's regular patrols by foot and air.

"More and more, law enforcement is out there in the wilderness, and that pushes these growers to stay one step ahead of us," said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino. "It's really a pain to search for these grows by foot, to be honest with you, because they hide them so well."

The suburban homes make sense for criminals because authorities say they can operate with little scrutiny.

Indoor pot plants are smaller than their outdoor counterparts, which are harvested once a year and produce about a pound of the drug. But the advantage of growing indoors, authorities say, is that a new crop is produced every three months or so, which over a year would equal the outdoor harvest.

Also, the indoor plants are shielded from airborne surveillance or interlopers who inadvertently find the plants or try to steal them. Between 2001 and 2005, the DEA reported that the number of outdoor plants seized nationwide rose from 3 million to nearly 5 million. The number of seizures of indoor marijuana plants jumped from about 236,000 in 2001 to 401,000 last year.

Authorities worry that home farms can attract drug violence to normally peaceful neighborhoods.

"Don't expect them to invite you inside for cookies, because they are trying to protect their indoor grow," the DEA's Taylor said.

Assistant Chief Kent Shaw with the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement agreed, adding that state officials already have been receiving more reports of crimes connected to the indoor marijuana operations.

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The DEA has a cut off point of 0 marijuana plants before imposing a jump in penalties. There were 2100 plants in just one of these houses. The people involved were not merely "Weed" level dealers growing their own but a mobster syndicate instead. I would not want to be a neighbor when this large a target might draw home invasion thefts and professional killers.

Originally Posted by Richard

The DEA has a cut off point of 0 marijuana plants before imposing a jump in penalties. There were 2100 plants in just one of these houses. The people involved were not merely "Weed" level dealers growing their own but a mobster syndicate instead. I would not want to be a neighbor when this large a target might draw home invasion thefts and professional killers.

Well, they had better get ready because apparently this is yet another Mexican Mob doing jobs Americans won't do.