COPS ROOT OUT POT IN SUBURBS

Tips Lead Local Enforcers To Suburban Growers, Crops

Mike Camai never suspected anything unusual about his neighbor Richard
Nash.

"He told me, he's a painter -- and I saw him at a paint store," Camai
said, adding his surprise to hear that police recently accused Nash of
being a drug dealer and charged him with turning his house
in Troy into a sophisticated hydroponic operation to grow marijuana.

"To be honest," Camai said, "Richard looked like a good guy."

Law enforcement officials say it is likely there are hundreds of
houses nestled in suburban Detroit in which people are hydroponically
growing the distinctive-smelling drug, and officers are working hard
to sniff them out.

"It's a national trend," said Oakland County Sheriff's Lt. Joe
Quisenberry, commander of the regional narcotics unit that includes
officers from 13 municipalities and federal agents. "We're seeing this
more and more."

The reason, Quisenberry said Wednesday, is that it is easy to acquire
the knowledge and equipment needed to grow marijuana, and the quality
of the homegrown plants is much better than those cultivated in open
fields, thus demanding more money on the street. It's also harder for
police to find in-house plants.

To uncover these operations, police rely on tips and look for steep
jumps in electricity usage.

Last year, Quisenberry said, law enforcement found 16
marijuana-growing operations in Oakland County. Many more are still
hiding, he said.

"I think they are out there," Macomb County Sheriff's Capt. Tony
Wickersham said. It was in Macomb County in 2004 where authorities
found more than 1,000 marijuana plants in three tony houses. "It's a
matter of detecting them, investigating them and shutting them down."

When they do, police say, they also are able to confiscate the house
under drug forfeiture laws. Meanwhile, police are trying to track down
homes in the suburbs where marijuana isn't grown but housed to be
distributed.

In Farmington Hills, three people were arrested this weekend and charged in
connection with trafficking 70 pounds of marijuana from Mexico.

Police said they confiscated the plants and $33,000, and more arrests
are expected.

"The market is driving the trend," said Farmington Hills Police Chief
William Dwyer, who added that marijuana is making a comeback as a drug
of choice.

In addition, Quisenberry said, hydroponically grown marijuana has as
much as four times the street value as traditionally grown marijuana
because it's more potent.

Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Steve Robertson said
it's unknown how many homes there are like Nash's nationwide, but the
number seems to be growing, based on the number of homes raided and
the number of tips on such homes being received.

"It's like any other drug trend," Robertson said Wednesday. "People
are learning about it, and they're trying it."

The Internet, which is full of information about how to grow the
plants and sites where to buy equipment, is driving the trend,
Robertson said.

Police said Nash, 48, turned his home into a greenhouse with special
lights and sophisticated irrigation systems. Officers found 96
marijuana plants at different stages of growth, scales, a freezer full
of dried leaves and more than $81,000 in cash in a wall safe.

He had been growing the marijuana for as many as three years, police
said.

Quisenberry said that, in this case as in most, a tip led officers to
investigate the house.

Detectives set up a three-month undercover operation, and after a
magistrate signed a search warrant, the sheriff's office used a
helicopter equipped with a device that can determine how much heat --
from the grow lights -- a structure radiates.

But, Quisenberry said, the first thing officers noticed when they
burst through Nash's door was the smell. "It has its own aroma."