More Marijuana Gardens Found In Elk Grove Homes

[qWERTY]

Agents seized more than 6,000 marijuana plants from seven Elk Grove-area homes Monday night, police said Tuesday.

Officials said these latest seizures being the total to 14 indoor marijuana growing operations and 10,000 marijuana plants found in homes in and around Elk Grove this month.

"The seizure of this many indoor grows in such a short period of time and with this level of sophistication is unprecedented for the Elk Grove area," said Gordon Taylor, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Sacramento, in a prepared statement.

Taylor added that more busts may be made.

"This investigation is far from finished," he said. "We still have quite a few stones to turn over."

Based upon the indoor gardens and the 10,000 plants seized so far, it is estimated the growing operations would have produced approximately 10,000 pounds of marijuana on an annual basis. The street value for 10,000 pounds of marijuana is about $40 million.

More than 35 law enforcement officers from the Elk Grove Police Department and DEA served federal search warrants at the single-family Elk Grove residences.

No one lived at any of the homes, but witnesses told police they observed Asian males previously entering the homes. Each of the indoor pot gardens were similar in construction and operation, police said.

Investigators added that each house was completely void of furniture and virtually every room was used for growing pot. They found sophisticated lighting, water irrigation, ventilation and air filtration systems set up in each house. The electricity to each home was rewired to bypass the electrical meter, saving the growers thousands of dollars in electrical bills each month, but creating a significant fire hazard.

No arrests were made Monday night. But five Bay Area defendants were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Sacramento last week on federal marijuana charges in connection with this continuing investigation.

Police said they discovered gardens at the following Elk Grove residences during the latest search:

* 8700 Santa Ridge Circle
* 8693 Nemea Way
* 9502 Mainline Drive
* 10244 Shoech Way
* 9709 Summer Glen Way
* 9226 Bearint Way
* 5513 Laguna Park Drive



NewsHawk: _qWERTY - 420 Magazine
Source: KCRA-3 Online
Pubdate: August 29, 2006
Copyright: 2006 by KCRA.com
Contact: newscomments@kcra.com
Website: KCRA.com - Sacramento's Breaking News, Weather and Traffic Leader

 

[RangerDanger]

All that $$ for equip., all that knowledge to construct the growrooms and grow the pot, yet apparently no one figured out that houses that use LOTS of electricity or don't have anyone living there are a security rsk, combine both of them like in these cases and you're just asking for trouble.

I remember a case I read about. It was in an industrial park in Orange County.
Some had rented a building and initially there was a lot of people & vehicles going in and out.
But after 2 weeks most everyone stopped showing up. The adjoining businesses noticed that 1 guy showed up for about an hour a day, the place recieved no mail, no one ever used the single telephone, and when the suspicious industrial park owners checked, the building was using tons of elec. They reported it and the cops sent a fire marshall over--at a business they can demand entry at any time and they found a large commercial grow op.
The cops said they were a bit surprized--they thought it was a place where tapes/dvd's etc. were being illegally copied/pirated; they hadn't expected to find a giant grow room.
Now, if the people backing that grow op had brains, they would have had let's say 1 full-time guy and 2 or 3 part-time guys show up very day, even if all they did once inside was watch tv.
And have magazines sent there, make some phone calls, stuff like that. That wouldn't have attracted any attention and the place might have still been in business.

 

[merickson]

All those meth. labs and they go after these folks.