Sting Takes Roof Off Marijuana Network

[Urdedpal]

Although it looks at home among its affluent neighbors, one house on Crooked Lane helped federal agents break up a multimillion- dollar marijuana growing operation that authorities said involved at least 10 houses across the Tampa Bay area.

The 4-bedroom, 3-bath contemporary stucco home at 18970 Crooked Lane is set back on a landscaped, shaded lot in a bucolic setting.

For several months, the house was operated under the supervision of the Drug Enforcement Administration as an indoor marijuana farm, part of an investigation of what authorities say was a network of 10 to 20 houses run by a single organization that harvested millions of dollars in profits. The indoor farms operated in houses in Tampa, Lutz, Hudson and Spring Hill.

The organization allegedly employed its own carpenter and an electrician to "jump" its source of electric power to avoid detection and steal electricity. According to a DEA affidavit, the organization also included a Realtor, who helped find houses that met specifications. The group used a type of seed called "Hog," imported from the Netherlands at a cost of $1,000 per seed. The houses in the network averaged 100 marijuana plants at a time. That number of plants would yield about 25 pounds of marijuana in a harvest, according to Dominic P. Albanese, the assistant special agent in charge of the Tampa DEA office, who said each house had about three harvests a year. Pot sells for between $4,000 and $6,000 a pound, meaning each harvest would bring about $100,000, Albanese said, adding that the annual revenue for 10 houses would come to about $3 million.

Authorities say the organization was headed by Herbert Ferrell Jr., of Greeley Drive in Tampa. It's part of what officials say is a trend toward increasing sophistication in indoor marijuana growing. In addition to Ferrell, 10 others were indicted in December on a charge of conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute, a charge that carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in federal prison. The others include a father and two sons, Rigo Same, Rigo Same Jr. and Yasmany Same. One defendant, Giovanny Caballero, is scheduled to plead guilty March 22.

The only defense attorney in the case who said anything substantive when contacted by a reporter, Daniel Castillo represents Irisleidy Morales, whom he described as the girlfriend of one of the Sames. "She kind of got sucked into this whole indictment by being in love," he said. "The case appears to be pretty strong against most of the defendants. This lady still has some defenses. ... There's strong evidence against many defendants, but you know, that's what trials are for."

More Indoor Farms Uncovered

Albanese said his agents are seeing more and larger marijuana grow houses appearing in the Tampa Bay area.

But Tampa police Sgt. Kenneth Morman said he thinks any increase is because law enforcement has become better at finding the indoor farms. Since 2003, Tampa police have seized 1,524 plants from 11 houses, according to information from the department.

According to preliminary numbers from the DEA, there were 4.2 million marijuana plants seized from 33,000 gardens nationwide in 2005. In Florida, there were 29,646 plants in 284 outdoor gardens and 45,000 seized from 384 indoor farms.

John Hammerberg, a revenue protection specialist for TECO, said the electric company investigates about four to six cases a year of electricity theft for marijuana grow houses. The participants in this operation "were somewhat more professional looking than a lot of the jobs we we're seeing," Hammerberg said. "It was obvious that whoever was doing it had a vast knowledge, knew how to do electrical work. It was an unusually good job."

Informant Helped Set Up House

According to court documents, federal agents uncovered the organization when an informant in an unrelated Georgia fraud case started talking in October 2004. The informant, who was in the real estate business, said Ferrell had approached the informant about 10 years earlier about buying houses.

In a conversation that was recorded by the DEA at the Dekalb airport in Georgia, Ferrell allegedly told the informant that it takes an electrician one week to build electrical boxes and about three weeks to finish the rest of the setup before marijuana could be grown.

Ferrell said he paid cutters $2,000 to $3,000 a week to harvest the marijuana "because the stuff gets them 'high,' gets on their skin, and the sap and rosin just eats them up," the affidavit says. "Lastly, Ferrell stated that they have more buyers than they have product."

The Crooked Lane house was once owned by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard Kerry Jenkins, according to court records, tax records, testimony and the DEA. Jenkins is not implicated in any wrongdoing. For several months, the house was outfitted for hydroponic cultivation. In November, agents shut it down, seizing 119 plants that were growing in the northernmost bedroom. The room was outfitted with wood platforms, buckets, lights and an irrigation system, according to an affidavit by DEA Special Agent Justin Duralia.

Albanese said the source was asked by "the bad guys" to set up a house and did so under the supervision of agents. The reason, Albanese said, was "to infiltrate the organization. That's the main purpose." He said that while the house was being outfitted, agents observed people coming in and out, and gathered information about other houses.

Agents, he said, use "any chance we got to extend an investigation without putting dope on the street. Our purpose is never to put dope on the street." The house, he said, was shut down before any of the pot grown there was distributed.

"I didn't have any idea," said neighbor, Michael Young, who was shocked when told by a reporter what had been going on in the house next to his off Crooked Lane. "We don't have anything like that around here."

Growing The Operation

Duralia testified in a Feb. 14 court hearing that Ferrell, the lead defendant, assisted in getting the equipment to set up the indoor marijuana farm and recruited another defendant, Rocco Sarley, as an investor. As the house operated for several months, DEA agents monitored the activities of the defendants who came and went, using video and audio recorders.

At one point, Duralia testified, defendants brought 12 pounds of marijuana grown at another house to the Crooked Lane house for processing. Albanese said that marijuana was later seized by agents.

One of the houses in the drug network, 13003 Whisper Bay Place, in Carrollwood, was raided in December after a confidential source told the DEA there were about 216 marijuana plants being grown in three rooms. The organization, the source reported, had been cultivating marijuana for about eight to 10 years, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.

Charles Towater, who lives up the street, said, "Everyone was shocked to know something was going in that house." But he said it's always been a mystery house. In his 15 years in the neighborhood, he said, he never knew who lived there. "No one could quite figure out who was doing what," he said. "It's always been kind of a question mark. It just didn't seem quite right."

Another house federal authorities say was part of the network, is at 10124 Woodsong Way. Perched at the corner of Orange Grove Road, the house overlooks a small pond on a tree-lined street. Surrounded by a low-slung stucco wall and black iron fencing, the house still wore its Christmas finery, gold tinsel and red bows, as late as February, apparently left after the government hut down the growing operation.

Still another house was guarded behind the iron protection of a gated community on Safe Harbor Drive, the street where Bucs coach Jon Gruden lives. According to a government affidavit, investigators think there were two rooms inside that house set up to grow marijuana plants.

Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2006, The Tribune Co.
Contact: Send A Letter To The Editor - from TBO.com
Website: The Tampa Tribune - Life. Printed Daily.

[IshmarRodriguez]

The group used a type of seed called "Hog," imported from the Netherlands at a cost of $1,000 per seed.

Woah, what strain is this stuff?? I've never seen a seed go for that much! I thought the highest quality feminised were like $100-200ish???

Any growers got some info on this? Am I wrong in what I thought seed prices were?

[LizardKing]

yea $1,000 seems alittle steep, lmao, I think they might have streched the truth a bit...

I think they mean this strain, which is not 1,000 a seed..
http://www.planetskunk.com/marijuana...roducts_id/176

[ChesterO]

Bet it was $1000 worth of seed total. But $1000 per seed stuck in the head of someone. Likely either the prosecutor bragging:60: , or the reporter making-up a better story.

Still, that was quite an operation...