MORE 'GROW HOUSES' FOR POT RAIDED

Police are busting marijuana "grow houses" in a wide-ranging sweep
targeting a ring of million-dollar pot producers, police said Wednesday.

Sheriff's deputies raided a suburban home on Michelle Lee Drive near
Dacula on Wednesday night, said sheriff's department spokeswoman
Stacey Bourbonnais. She wasn't certain initially of how much pot was
growing in the basement of the house as she walked through it around
7:30 p.m. There were too many plants to count easily, she said.

The marijuana find comes on the heels of a $2 million bust on Monday.
Gwinnett police discovered a similar marijuana growing operation in a
basement of a house on Friars Gate Drive near Lawrenceville (see map).

The Gwinnett County raid on the Lawrenceville "grow house" stemmed
from busts last week in Barrow and Jackson counties, said Cpl. Darren
Moloney, spokesman for Gwinnett County police. Jackson County
Sheriff's Office deputies raided four houses last week. Barrow and
Hall counties made similar raids, finding hundreds of thousands of
dollars in marijuana and waist-high plants grown hydroponically.

Police are spreading out around the northern arc of metro Atlanta as
each raid nets more intelligence on the sophisticated production
ring, Moloney said.

The marijuana bust was the third major find in a week in Gwinnett.
Fire officials determined a house fire last week in Lawrenceville was
the result of another grow operation. Hot lamps had set the attic
aflame. Police also found 10 plants in garbage cans behind a Gwinnett
business in a separate incident.

Moloney wouldn't say whether the incidents are connected. But the
investigation is spreading, he said.

"This is organized crime," Moloney said. "It's not a bunch of people
who decided to just get together and grow marijuana."

Arrested and charged in the Lawrenceville case were [Name redacted],
43; J[Name redacted], 35; and [Name redacted], 36. The
three denied living in the house, police said. [Name redacted] told
police he is from Mexico. The other two said they are from Cuba.

The three are being held at the Gwinnett County Detention Center,
Moloney said. They face felony drug charges. Police said the house on
Friars Gate Drive had been converted into a sophisticated hydroponics
lab. Police saw little evidence from outside that anything unusual
was going on, Moloney said.

But the inhabitants had tied on to the power lines beyond the power
meter, concealing the amount of electricity used from the utility
company, he said. The living space held little or no furniture. The
kitchen was messy. One room had a small bed and a small TV atop a
stack of gardening supply bags. The floor was littered with dark
green particles -- marijuana tracked in from the operation in the
basement, Moloney said.

The ceiling of the basement had rows of lamps to light and warm
hundreds of plants, he said. The ceiling had been covered in duct
tape to reflect heat inward. Officers seized about 500 marijuana
plants and more than 40 pounds of marijuana, Moloney said.

"The scope of it was so large, you can't imagine," he said.