POT FARMS TAKE ROOT INSIDE INLAND HOMES

An indoor marijuana crop that authorities valued at $8.5 million was
uncovered Friday in Norco, the latest in a fast-moving flood of
suburban homes-turned-illegal greenhouses that began in Canada and
spread to the Inland area last year.

Law enforcement up and down the West Coast have been busting these
home-grown operations in record numbers over the past year with
several high-profile seizures in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and
San Bernardino counties. State authorities believe many of the
operations are tied to Asian gangs.

The number of indoor plants seized between 2004 and 2006 by law
officers in California nearly quadrupled to 196,000 from 54,000,
federal records show.

The Norco greenhouse and a smaller one discovered Monday in Riverside
appear to be the only cases this year in Riverside County, said
Riverside County Sheriff's Department spokesman Gerald Franchville.
He called Friday's seizure the largest and most valuable in at least
eight years.

San Bernardino County narcotics officers were averaging about two
home-based marijuana-grower raids per month until about six weeks
ago, the commander of the narcotics division estimated, adding that
deputies have raided seven or eight in the past six weeks.

"They're usually part of multiple houses belonging to a single
drug-trafficking organization," said Ron Brooks, president of the
West Covina-based National Narcotics Officers Association Coalition.
"Primarily, Asian organized crime ... has operated these."

Franchville declined to comment on whether Riverside County sheriff's
investigators believe the Norco operation is connected to a larger
organization, citing their ongoing investigation.

Illegal growers customarily buy homes in upscale residential
neighborhoods and immediately remodel each room to grow, dry or
package pot plants, officials said.

The growing equipment in each house can cost up to $77,000. Each
plant can produce a pound of potent marijuana worth as much as $4,000.

Friday's Raid

In many ways, the Norco house exemplified the recent wave of suburban
pot farms. But if the idea was to blend into a quiet, affluent
neighborhood, neighbors said the growers blew their cover from the start.

At least 10 neighbors said the five-bedroom two-story house had been
conspicuous since it was sold in January. Why anyone would buy a
$720,000 home and then let the lawn turn brown and die, they wondered?

It made perfect sense when they learned that that the interior was
lush and green -- with 1,447 marijuana plants.

[redacted] were arrested about 2 a.m. Friday at the residence in the
[redacted]. They were booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center
in Riverside on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and other
drug-related offenses, Franchville said.

He called the operation "sophisticated," noting that it included 70,
1,000-watt heat lamps, 12 industrial-size air purifiers, and a
drip-irrigation and water-recycling system.

About $5,500 a month in stolen electricity ran through circuits
rigged to bypass the meter, Franchville said.

Neighbors said the house never looked occupied, and Franchville
confirmed that it was unlivable, with plants and equipment filling
every room but the master bedroom.

The furnished bedroom lay behind the only unshuttered window, he
said, probably to make the house look lived in.

Mario Torres said he and his wife, Yvonne, had been talking about the
house since January, when their new neighbors raised suspicions.

"They moved in late at night with a U-Haul truck," Torres recalled.

After that, he never saw anyone at the house. Occasionally, a
Mercedes SUV with Texas license plates would be parked in front of
the house, he said.

An anonymous tip led authorities to the house. Franchville said he
could not reveal whether the tip came from a neighbor.

The raid is the second of its kind in the region this week. On
Monday, a Riverside man was arrested in connection with a similar
house-based operation in the [redacted] in Riverside. That operation
was about half the size, with 675 plants and three-dozen heat lamps.
Like the Norco marijuana farm, it depended upon stolen electricity.

From Canada to California

Although indoor pot farms have been around for decades, the trend in
high-dollar crops that produce extremely potent marijuana can be
traced to British Columbia, says Gordon Taylor, head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration office in Sacramento.

"The situation has gotten so bad that the main power company (in
British Columbia) estimates there are between 15,000 and 21,000
indoor marijuana farms within that province," Taylor said.

Vietnamese and other Asian organized-crime groups control most of
those pot farms, he said.

Apparent copycats borrowed the idea and transplanted it to the Bay
Area and Sacramento region, Taylor said.

Neighbors tipped off Elk Grove police to some of the Sacramento
area's first indoor pot farms nearly a year ago. The DEA joined that
investigation, which turned up 21 homes where marijuana was being
grown, all in upscale subdivisions, Taylor said.

Two weeks later, in September 2006, Stockton police spotted 20 more
houses-turned-pot farms, bring the total to 41.

And during the first two months of this year, nine more pot
operations were discovered in Tracy, Modesto and Lathrop, boosting
the total to 50 homes.

"Each of our houses had $33,000 to $77,000 in hydroponic (growing)
equipment so it takes quite a bit of money to start up one of these,"
Taylor said.

All were being operated by an Asian crime group based in the Bay
Area, he said. The annual combined value of the crops would have
totaled $94 million, he estimates.

'Seven or Eight in Six Weeks'

In Southern California, sophisticated indoor pot farms began cropping
up this year, primarily in the past three months, Taylor said.

A San Bernardino County sheriff's official agrees.

"We were averaging a couple of (indoor-pot-farm seizures) a month,"
said Lt. Greg Garland, commander of the department's narcotics
division. "Then we've had this run of ... seven or eight in six weeks."

He recalls at least three finds in Phelan and one each in Chino
Hills, Yucaipa, Rancho Cucamonga and the Victor Valley.

"We're scratching the surface," he said. "There's no common
denominator. We've seen it in areas where homes are selling for
$180,000 to Chino Hills, where the house was $850,000."

Typically, one room will contain starter plants that are 1 or 2
inches tall, Garland said. Another room will have plants 1 to 3 feet
tall. And a third room will have full-grown plants, ranging from 3 to
8 feet tall.

Marijuana is dried and packaged in other rooms, he said.

The growers come from various backgrounds, ranging from members of
Asian organized-crime groups to Mexican nationals and Caucasians with
no known gang affiliations, he said.

The electricity can cost $1,500 to $2,000 or more a month -- unless
they steal it.

But "bootlegging" electricity is dangerous if the wiring job is done
wrong. That's what happened at a Chino Hills house that caught fire,
attracting the attention of a neighbor who called the cops, Garland said.

But the profits apparently are worth the risk to many people.

The price of marijuana in San Bernardino County has quadrupled in the
past seven to 10 years, Garland said, who estimated the price for a
pound of indoor-grown pot at $3,500.

"It's lucrative," he said.