AUTHORITIES MAKE ANOTHER DRUG BUST IN DRUG RING - SEIZE 500 PLANTS

A Lawrenceville home was the latest "grow house" for indoor marijuana
cultivation discovered by authorities this week in an ongoing
investigation that has stretched into 13 counties, including Hall.

Gwinnett County Police spokesman Darren Moloney said when drug
investigators came to the house at Friars Gate Drive with a search
warrant Monday night, three men ran away. They were quickly captured.

Inside the home, investigators found what has become a familiar sight
in recent weeks: a basement marijuana-growing operation complete with
ultraviolet lighting, irrigation, ventilation and mylar-coated walls
and ceilings.

"The entire basement of this house was converted into a hydroponics
lab," Moloney said. Hydroponics is the process of growing plants
indoors without soil.

Authorities seized 500 pot plants with an estimated street value of $2
million.

Eduardo Rodriguez, 43, Jose Felipe-Bruno, 35, and Jorge Alberto
Gonzalez-Sanchez, 36, were each charged with felony marijuana
trafficking. Gonzalez-Sanchez is from Mexico while the other two
suspects are from Cuba, Moloney said. Their immigration status had not
been determined Wednesday.

The Lawrenceville raid comes a week after Hall County authorities
uncovered two grow houses in the Chestnut Mountain area.

More than 280 plants valued at $576,000 were seized from homes on
Benefield Road and in the Georgian Acres subdivision. The homeowners
were not home and no arrests have been made in the case.

In Jackson County, six grow houses and $2 million in pot were
discovered in recent weeks.

More than 25 people have been arrested in connection with the case,
which originated in Fayette County after a tip from Drug Enforcement
Administration officials in Miami. At least 30 grow houses have been
uncovered in Georgia in the past month.

Authorities say the drug trafficking ring was led by 35-year-old Cuban
national Merquiades Martinez of Fayette County, who is among those in
custody.

Hall County authorities are looking for Luis R. Rojas-Argote, whose
name was on the deed records of the $300,000 Georgian Acres home
raided last week.