Original Article at: http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_5590528
Marijuana farms find home in suburbs
Growers invest in expensive houses to conceal their operations
By Tony Barboza and David Pierson - LOS ANGELES TIMES - Contra Costa Times Article Launched:04/04/2007 03:06:58 AM PDT
DIAMOND BAR -- Mayor Steve Tye never noticed anything unusual about the upscale three-bedroom suburban home a block from his house.
That is, until March 28, when Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies burst in and found the entire house had been converted into a massive indoor marijuana farm, complete with flood-table irrigation system and overhead lights on timers that were hooked up illegally to bypass meter readings.
It's the second time in just more than a week a suburban house turned pot farm has been discovered in Diamond Bar, a bedroom community of 58,000 in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. Two more marijuana-cultivating homes were found in a neighboring suburb this month.
Detectives are investigating whether the houses might be tied to a similar suburban pot ring busted last year in Northern California and allegedly run by a Chinese gang.
In Diamond Bar alone, authorities have hauled away what authorities estimate to be more than $22 million in marijuana.
Tye said he was stunned when sheriff's deputies told him an estimated $10 million in marijuana was being grown near his house. He suspects the growers were counting on Diamond Bar's low profile to conceal their operation.
"It's a disturbing trend. I think people that break the law are always looking for an opportunity to stay hidden from the authorities," he said. "They've used up growing it in mountains, the outlying areas, and now their next greatest idea is doing it in neighborhoods."
Authorities in neighboring upscale Chino Hills have found about $6 million in marijuana plants in recent weeks, including one house discovered March 28.
Two weeks ago, police seized 1,300 plants from a six-bedroom house in Chino Hills, said Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
Officials are not sure whether the cases are connected, but there some striking similarities. Both houses in Diamond Bar recently had been purchased, apparently with the intent to use suburbia as a cover for major marijuana cultivation.
That's a substantial investment in an area where most houses sell for $600,000 to $1 million, authorities said.
In the first Diamond Bar house, deputies found a special ventilation system designed to prevent the smell of marijuana from reaching the street.
The lack of such a system in the house uncovered Thursday in Diamond Bar, and the smell that wafted out to the street as a result, is what tipped neighbors off, said Lt. Jim Whitten of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Narcotics Bureau.
"Every room had marijuana growing in it except the bathroom and kitchen," he said. "There's no evidence of anybody living here. It was just all set up for growing."
Last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and local police discovered similar elaborate marijuana farmers hidden inside nearly 40 suburbs homes across Northern California.
As in the Southern California cases, the suspects allegedly purchased the homes for $500,000 or more and meticulously converted them into cultivation centers. They knocked down walls, created irrigation systems and even hired gardeners to cut the lawns and take out the trash to avoid raising suspicion, authorities said.
DEA officials say the Northern California marijuana ring was operated by a Chinese-American crime operation based in San Francisco's Chinatown.
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