Pubdate: Mon, 14 May 2007
Source: Whittier Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/writealetter
Website: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/497
Author: Frank C. Girardot, Staff Writer
Note: MAP archives articles exactly as published, except that our
editors may redact the names and addresses of accused persons who
have not been convicted of a crime, if those named are not otherwise
public figures or officials.

INDOOR POT FARM ALLURE IS GROWING

High Profits, Low Risk Spur Home Operations

A crackdown on meth, tighter border controls,  no-money-down mortgages
and the lure of large profits  are behind the rise of indoor pot farms
in the San  Gabriel Valley and elsewhere, according to
authorities.

Since March, police have raided almost two dozen homes  and businesses
converted to large-scale marijuana  farming operations.

Officials believe many of the farms, which employ an  assembly
line-style operation and can generate up to  six harvests a year, are
funded by entrepreneurial  gangsters looking for easy money during
hard times.

"My spin on it is Asian and Caucasian biker gangs  have developed a
form of marijuana that is double the  potency of Mexican marijuana,"
said Los Angeles County  Sheriff's Capt. Dennis Werner. "The more
expensive the  product, the more money they can get out of it."

Narcotics officers from Los Angeles, San Bernardino and  Riverside
counties as well as agents from the federal  Drug Enforcement Agency
and detectives from the Pomona  and Azusa Police Departments
participated in the  seizures.

In all, the 23 houses and one business accounted for a  street value
of more than

$50 million worth of pot.

As with any good business model, pot growers need an outlet. Economic
forces create a market.

Crackdowns on methamphetamine labs provide a  knowledgable work force;
easy-to-obtain mortgages  furnish the land; medical marijuana
dispensaries and a  re-emergence of the '60s pot culture supplies the
customers, said Gerald Caiden, a USC professor of  economics and
political science who specializes in  political corruption and
organized crime.

Beyond that, "It's not too difficult to come up with a  little capital
and use a little entrepreneurship," said  Lt. James Whitten of the Los
Angeles County Sheriff's  Department.

The history of one house, at 1512 Eldertree Drive in  Diamond Bar,
that was raided on March 21 is typical of  the grow homes, Whitten
said.

The house sold for $823,000 in January, according to  records from the
Los Angeles County Assessor's Office.  The buyer, who has not been
identified by authorities,  apparently put together a purchase loan
with little  money down and made no payments for insurance or taxes.

Inside the home, detectives found marijuana valued at  $12.5million
and an elaborate system of lighting and  irrigation rigged to bypass
municipal utility service.

The unidentified buyer also owns a home at 7715 Emerson  Place in
Rosemead that deputies raided two days later  and seized less than $1
million worth of drugs, Whitten  said.

A similar setup was employed there, officials said.

Again, the home was purchased with very little money  down and
retained little or no equity.

"We think the facts resemble a series of cases in  Northern
California," Werner said, "where grow homes  were bought with 100
percent financing."

The typical arrangement consists of the buyer obtaining  a mortgage
for 80 percent of the purchase price and  then a silent second for the
remaining 20 percent,  Werner said.

(redacted), 40, of San Francisco was arrested in the  Eldertree Drive
house and charged with cultivation of  marijuana for sale. He is being
held at the Pitchess  Detention Center without bail. The unidentified
homeowner has been in contact with detectives through  an attorney,
Werner said.

Although many of the houses display similar links and  purchase
patterns, detectives have been unable to nail  down any threads tying
them all together.

While Asian gangs, known as drug trafficking  organizations or DTOs,
seem to control much of the San  Gabriel Valley trade, Werner said
biker gangs and other  criminal organizations are also involved.

A recent series of six busts in Palmdale involved  African- American
suspected gang members. Four were  taken into custody and 690 plants
were seized, Werner  said.

The varying ethnicity of suspects all the more proves  the
profitability of such ventures, Caiden said.

"This is a terrific business and marijuana is a great  cash crop,"
Caiden said "The profits are enormous. If  it wasn't so profitable, it
wouldn't be worth the  risk."

Links to the San Gabriel Valley crop up in many other  busts. Last
Monday, San Bernardino County deputies  uncovered a grow home in
Yucaipa.

A check of public records indicates Liang is connected  to the now
defunct Ever-Union Trading & Investment Inc.  The company, which
authorities claim swindled investors  in Taiwan, was busted in October
by Taiwanese officials  and detectives from the Sheriff's Fraud
Bureau. Liang  had been missing ever since, authorities said.

Police said the men arrested in many of these cases  refuse to talk.
Most of the homeowners they interview  claim to have little knowledge
of the activity.

"Several of the owners are elderly, in their 60s or  70s," Werner
said. "Who knows? They may be straw  buyers. In a couple of cases,
said they had posted   at a laundry. Somebody moved in and they get
cash every  month. Each case is different."

Similar to meth labs, grow homes present a variety of  poisonous
perils from the merely mild to considerably  lethal.

"These houses become toxic waste dumps," Werner said.  "Mold permeates
the walls. ... They dump gallons of  liquid fertilizer. It's a
horrible health hazard to the  community regardless of how you stand
on marijuana."

There is also a criminal element the farms seem to  attract. An indoor
farm in Azusa began to draw the  attention of authorities because of
the people it  attracted.

"I noticed different people, weirdo-druggies walking  down the
alleyway," said Sherri Wells of Glendora, who  works in a bakery
supply company in the same complex.  "After the fact though I realized
how crazy it is that  you don't notice something like that until after
it  happens."

Authorities said some of the product might find its way  to medical
marijuana dispensaries, like one busted by  authorities in West Covina
on Monday.

"They have to get their product somewhere," Whitten  said. "It would
be a good venue for them to sell. Right  now though we have no actual
information leading us to  any one of those places."

If dispensaries are the ultimate destination for the  tons of
marijuana produced at area grow homes, police  might be overstepping
their bounds, according to Bruce  Margolin, head of the Los Angeles
chapter of the  National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
  (NORML).

Margolin said the law protects pot grown for purely  medicinal
purposes.

"But, the law is only as good as those who interpret
it,"

Margolin said. "Sometimes you have rogue cops. They  want to go out
and kick in the door and seize the  product. Very few, if any, have
been prosecuted."

But grow farm operators are choosing houses in the  outlying suburbs
because it suits their immediate  needs.

"Working out of a house cuts down the risks," Caiden  said. "When you
cut down the transportation costs and  any exposure to antiterrorist
measures, you increase  profits."
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MAP posted-by: Derek