Pubdate: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 Source: Northwest Herald (IL) Copyright: 2010 Northwest Herald Newspapers Contact: http://www.nwherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2762 Author: Jillian Duchnowski Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?261 (Cannabis - United States) INDOOR POT A GROWING BUSINESS McHenry County Sheriff's police already have seized more marijuana plants in indoor grow operations this year than they did in all of 2008. They busted a dozen houses last year and seized a total of 2,188 plants, including the 1,438 plants found in a McHenry rental home, said Sgt. John Koziol of the McHenry County Sheriff's Office. So far this year, sheriff's police have found 335 plants in three homes compared with the 120 plants they found in two indoor operations during 2008. Federal and county authorities said drug trafficking had increased overall throughout northern Illinois. Marijuana - including the potent and more expensive marijuana typical of indoor grow operations - remained prevalent, although heroin use increased enough in recent years to cause an alarming number of fatal overdoses, authorities said. McHenry County's relatively rural nature and proximity to Chicago made it attractive for marijuana growers, said Brian Besser, the resident agent-in-charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Rockford Resident Office. Some of the produce is smoked locally, but some of it is distributed far beyond the county borders. "There's no doubt that McHenry County-sourced marijuana is being distributed across the United States," Besser said. Instructions and advice for setting up these types of operations are readily available online, and the needed equipment is available at many gardening stores, said Master Sgt. Tim Sebastian of the North Central Narcotics Task Force. But the growers themselves were much more sophisticated than stereotypes from the 1970s of a few college-aged kids growing marijuana to share with their friends. Marijuana is a profitable cash crop. An ounce of marijuana - about a third of a sandwich bag - cost about $50 in the 1970s but would go for $250 to $500 now, Sebastian said. Indoor marijuana growers can produce better marijuana by tightly controlling the growing environment and make more money than they would using imported marijuana. "'I'm basically cutting out the middle-man,'" Sebastian said, speaking of a hypothetical indoor marijuana grower. "'I'm becoming the manufacturer and the distributor, which is more money in my pocket.'" The North Central Narcotics Task Force confiscated 46 plants from two locations in McHenry County last year. Besides the indoor grows, McHenry County sheriff's police found 7,744 marijuana plants at five outdoor locations last year, down from 10,099 plants at eight outdoor farms in 2008, Koziol said. Some area indoor marijuana farms included plants at various stages of growth and a separate area for creating new sprouts from clippings from a high-quality plant, authorities said. Police also seized processed marijuana at area grow houses. Overall, the North Central Narcotics Task Force seized 92,436 grams, or about 203 pounds, of processed marijuana in McHenry County last year. The sheriff's office confiscated about 1,561 pounds of marijuana, including 1,464 pounds seized on a semi-trailer near Huntley in December. That was up from 28 pounds in 2008 for the sheriff's office. Sheriff's police seized 65 grams of heroin last year, up from 53 grams in 2008, and the North Central Narcotics Task Force seized trace amounts of heroin in two instances in McHenry County. However, heroin users typically drive to Chicago or Rockford to buy an amount they plan to use quickly, Koziol said. "The people we talk to on the street are telling us [heroin is] the drug of choice now," said Koziol. Authorities also see a fair amount of cocaine and prescription drug abuse, but methamphetamine, a scourge in downstate Illinois, barely made an appearance here, police said. The North Central Narcotics Task Force seized about 800 grams of cocaine last year in McHenry County, while the sheriff's office confiscated 1,181 grams in 2009, down from 3,074 grams in 2008. McHenry County Sheriff's narcotics leaders said they were expecting to seize more illegal drugs this year than last year. The narcotics officers have used 10 search warrants so far this year after executing 30 search warrants in 2009, Koziol said. The sheriff's office also recently formalized a partnership with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Rockford. The partnership involves sharing investigative information and having at least two sheriff's deputies sworn in as federal agents, as well as a federal agent stationed in McHenry County. But Sebastian, of the North Central Narcotics Task Force, cautioned that the amount of drugs police confiscate could have more to do with where in the sales cycle they catch drug dealers than with overall drug traffic. He estimated that the task force confiscated a similar amount of illicit drugs in 2007 and 2008. [sidebars] TYPICAL SIGNS OF A MARIJUANA GROW HOUSE Infrequent visitors to a seemingly unoccupied house No snow on the home's roof Signs of tampering with an electric meter or stealing electricity from neighbors Windows open in the winter Covered windows Mold on the outside of the house A large amount of garbage REPORT SUSPICIONS OR TIPS TO: North Central Narcotics Task Force at www.ncntf.org McHenry County Sheriff's investigators at 815-334-4750 McHenry County CrimeStoppers can be reached anonymously at 800-762-7867. E-mails can also be sent to --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake