AREA IS INDOOR POT HAVEN

Neighbors sensed that something was peculiar about Brett
Anthony Zagar's mobile home, even more than the overgrown lot and the
lights that clicked on every night at the same time.

For one thing, Zagar didn't spend much time there, sometimes using the
trailer just to house his dogs. Most people rarely saw him. Even
though the trailer was usually empty, the air conditioning always
seemed to be on.

It wasn't until the unmarked police cars started parking on the road
that people figured something illegal might be going on inside the
mobile home. He was arrested last week and charged with cultivation of
marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession of drug
paraphernalia.

Police said nearly every available inch of space inside the
590-square-foot mobile home was packed with marijuana plants, 100 in
all. Zagar, 41, employed high-strength "grow" lights, which moved on
tracks and utilized timers to mimic the movement of the sun across the
sky, and had fans and air-conditioning units to control the
temperature inside, police said.

For a while, Zagar's single-wide provided the perfect cover -- and
that's the challenge for law enforcement.

With its patchwork of cheap rental properties, anonymous subdivisions
and mobile-home communities, Central Florida serves as an ideal venue
for indoor marijuana growers.

Last year, authorities found and destroyed more marijuana plants in
Orange County than in any other county in the state, according to
Florida Department of Law Enforcement statistics. With more than 6,000
indoor and outdoor plants seized, Orange had more than double the
total of Okeechobee, the second-ranked county.

Orange also ranked third statewide in the number of "indoor grow"
operations. Last year, agents raided 13 such operations in Orange,
with each one yielding dozens or even hundreds of plants. Seminole,
Lake and Brevard also ranked among the top 20 "indoor grow" counties
in the state.

Local, state and federal drug agents around Central Florida say more
and more pot growers are moving their operations indoors. Several
factors are behind the trend. The region's population growth is making
it harder to harvest marijuana outdoors as growers find less open
space to farm their plants. Add to that the prolonged drought
conditions and stepped-up eradication efforts against marijuana grown
outdoors.

It's easier than ever for amateurs to set up operations. The Internet
is teeming with Web sites, message boards and publications designed to
help the beginning pot grower.

Along with Zagar's $88,000 worth of plants, authorities found an
edition of High Times magazine, the premier publication for marijuana
aficionados, and a book titled Indoor Marijuana Cultivation.

3 Or 4 Harvests Per Year

Drug agents say marijuana growers are moving indoors, almost out of
necessity.

"With the limitations of grow fields, you go inside," said
special-agent supervisor Richard Ward, who coordinates the state's
efforts to erradicate marijuana growing. "You conceal it better, and
you produce three or four times a year, compared to a one-time shot."

What used to be a South Florida practice is now a growth industry in
Central Florida.

This month, 14 people who were growing marijuana inside homes they
rented in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods around Central Florida
were sentenced in federal court.

Investigators say John Dominick Capps of DeLand and his associates
used 31 homes to grow 10,000 plants. The pot sold for up to $4,800 a
pound, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

"For years, indoor grows were more common in the southern area of the
state," said Gerry Montalvo, an agent with the Drug Enforcement
Administration who works throughout Central Florida.

"But because of the drought we have experienced, that's driving
everybody to do it indoors," he said.

One indoor operation was discovered last year in a 4,000-square-foot
home on Old Winter Garden Road in the Gotha section of Orange County.
Outside, the lawn and garden was kept up. Inside, the home had pot
plants growing everywhere, except one spot reserved for a cot to sleep
on.

"They had this house packed," Cmdr. Bernie Presha, a spokesman for the
Orange County Sheriff's Office, said. "He was in that house 24-7."

Even technology seems to facilitate the move indoors. A hydroponics
system allows plants to be grown inside without soil.

The hydroponics systems, which also are used legitimately to grow
vegetables, provide marijuana plants with precise lighting, water,
carbon dioxide and nutrient levels, and produce highly potent pot.

Indoor Pot More Potent

The primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana is
tetrahydrocannibinol, or THC. Typical THC levels from commercial-grade
marijuana range between 2 percent and 5 percent, according to Montalvo
and FDLE reports. THC levels in marijuana grown in a hydroponics
system can reach 25 percent, or more.

A pound of regularly grown marijuana can fetch from $700 to $1,000,
Montalvo said. A pound produced with a hydroponics system can go for
$4,000 to $6,000.

"You can grow a million dollars worth of weed in a year, if you're
good," said Kyle Kushman, a cultivation reporter for High Times and
former grower who dispenses advice on how to care for and harvest cannabis.

When he was growing indoors in the Northeast, Kushman said, he would
move every six months, harvesting roughly two crops of marijuana at
each location.

"Over eight years, I moved 16 times," he said. "The ideal thing was to
find a landlord who didn't live in the neighborhood."

Imaging Requires Warrant

For law enforcement, finding neighborhood pot growers became a little
harder last week. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled police must first get a
search warrant before using "thermal-imaging" to scan homes for
unusual heat sources. The high-intensity lamps commonly used to grow
marijuana indoors emit easily detectable heat levels.

Agents in Central Florida have differing opinions on how the ruling
will affect their work, but they all agree indoor growing does not
appear to be leaving the area.

With a high potential for profit and a relatively low-risk of being
discovered, the indoor grower can be anywhere and anyone. "If they've
got the proper instructions, anybody can do it," Montalvo said.