Police Bust $10M Six-house Indoor N.J. Marijuana-production Scheme

[User]

Police uprooted a multimillion-dollar network of homes used to grow marijuana in the largest bust of pot production in New Jersey history, authorities announced today.

Within three days last month, police seized a total of 3,370 growing plants, 115 pounds of harvested pot and $65,000 cash.

Authorities said the total operation was worth $10 million based on potential output per plant. So far three people have been arrested and Interpol warrants were issued for three more believed to have fled to Thailand.

"While law enforcement in New Jersey has encountered high-tech indoor marijuana growing operations in the past, we have not seen anything to match the volume of production of this criminal enterprise," Attorney General Paula Dow said in a statement.

The investigation started accidentally on Feb. 17 when Monroe Township Police Officer Thomas Lucasiewicz smelled marijuana coming from the chimney of a home on Spotswood-Englishtown Road. When he knocked, Thu N. Nguyen opened the door, and Lucasiewicz smelled unusable pot plants being burned in the fireplace, authorities said.

Nguyen was arrested and police found 1,064 pot plants growing in the basement and master bedroom.

That was only the beginning, and the bust led to search warrants for five more rented houses in four other towns: Millstone, Old Bridge, Manalapan and Manahawkin.

Five of the homes were being used to grow marijuana. One of the suspects lived in a sixth home, on Hidden Court in Old Bridge, where police seized $60,000 cash and vacuum bags used to package the pot.

In addition, police say a seventh home in Barnegat owned by the suspects was previously used to grow marijuana.

Authorities described an intricate illegal operation.

Police found holes drilled in floors to vent heat from the high-wattage lamps used for artificial sunlight. One home had 74 lights of 1,000 watts each, authorities said. The suspects also bypassed electrical meters to conceal how much power the homes were concealing and steal electricity.

Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington, D.C., said outdoor farms still produce the bulk of marijuana grown in the United States, but said indoor cultivation has become more popular.

"These criminal groups will buy or rent a house on a middle class, quiet street," he said. "They'll draw their blinds so no one knows what's going on inside."

Payne said indoor growing allows drug dealers to grow marijuana year round because weather is not a factor. In addition, plummeting real estate values in places like Florida and California have made it easier for criminals to obtain homes, he said.

There were 35 indoor cultivation sites seized in New Jersey in 2008, less than one percent of the total nationwide, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The suspects arrested in this case include Nguyen, 44, a Canadian citizen; Tuan A. Dang, 35, of Port Monmouth; and Ngoc H. Bui, 35, of Old Bridge.

All three were charged with maintaining a marijuana cultivation factory, drug possession and stealing electricity.

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing, and warrants have been issued for three more suspects. Minh Bui and Quynh Bui are believed to have fled to Thailand, and Nhung Thach is also on the run.

Neighbors near the house on Spotswood-Englishtown Road, located on a residential strip nestled between farm fields, said they were surprised when they learned about the massive marijuana operation last month.

"I was wondering why all the cops were lined up," said Stanley Olbrys, 67, who runs a landscaping company next door. "It looked like a parade."

He said he never saw anybody at the house, a one-floor brick structure with well-manicured shrubs in front and shades drawn in all the windows.

Jen Moody, 34, who also lives next door, said she didn't think anybody lived in the house. But her husband would see cars come and go in the middle of the night, making him suspicious, she said.

"He would poke his head out, trying to see what was going on," she said.


NewsHawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: nj.com
Author: Chris Megerian
Copyright: 2010 New Jersey On-Line LLC.
Contact: Contact Us - NJ.com
Website: Police bust $10M six-house indoor N.J. marijuana-production scheme | - NJ.com

• Thanks to McBudz for submitting this article

[McBudz]

click on the link to the source and look at all the pro cannabis messages at the bottom.

[Oddnonsmoker]

Some of the prohibitionist comments were rather amusing to read. Fraught with stereotypes, misunderstanding the social forces causing crime, blind acceptance of double standards, lack of research into other countries, and numerous other groundless assumptions.

One user comment highlighted the underlying reason for the prohibitionists' staunch opposition: the fear of social change.

sure...legalize dope, then prostitution and then re-write the legal definition of marriage so gays can get married...no more norms...give everyone what they want...sounds like our culture is in the toilet.

You mean your culture of self-righteousness, repression, hypocrisy, and self-denial, not to mention personal rights violation? Not meaning to bring other political issues into the discussion, but I'm not entirely opposed to any of the things this user claims are a part of a social doomsday. My strongest tenet is that every person has control over themselves, and that no other person has the right to take that control into their own hands. From this, all other rights follow. If you want to do something that violates societal norms, then go right on ahead. As long as it doesn't hurt anybody, then I'm not going to stop you.

[User]

Originally Posted by Oddnonsmoker

.....If you want to do something that violates societal norms, then go right on ahead. As long as it doesn't hurt anybody, then I'm not going to stop you.

actually i would encourage it

[Soniq420]

Stealthiness is only as secure as the weakest decision.

The investigation started accidentally on Feb. 17 when Monroe Township Police Officer Thomas Lucasiewicz smelled marijuana coming from the chimney of a home on Spotswood-Englishtown Road. When he knocked, Thu N. Nguyen opened the door, and Lucasiewicz smelled unusable pot plants being burned in the fireplace, authorities said.