TIPS SMOKE OUT INDOOR POT FARMS

As Raids Target Elk Grove Homes, Hillside Yolo Operation Yields 9,000 Plants

More than 10,000 marijuana plants were seized in three
Sacramento-area raids Wednesday, further contributing to what some
law enforcement officials say has been a lucrative year for pot suppression.

On a dense Capay Valley hillside in rural Yolo County in the early
morning, the Yolo Narcotic Enforcement Team unearthed and hauled off
more than 9,000 plants that, fully cultivated, could have yielded
more than $40 million for the operators, said Roy Giorgi, YoNET commander.

The bust brought Yolo County's total of eradicated pot plants for the
year to 16,000 -- far surpassing the average year's total of 1,000 to
2,000 plants, Giorgi said.

A similar spike is being seen statewide, he said.

"It's a huge business," he said. "If one of (these plots) can make it
through (the season), you're talking multi-million dollar profit."

Also on Wednesday, federal drug agents and local police raided two
indoor residential pot farms in Elk Grove, bringing to eight the
total of such illicit operations uncovered in the booming suburban
city this summer alone.

The raid found more than 1,000 plants, said Scott Hoernke, resident
agent-in-charge for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The two homes are believed to be part of an operation that included
five homes -- three in Elk Grove, two in Sacramento -- uncovered by
police two weeks ago.

And Elk Grove isn't the only city seeing a spike in these narcotic operations.

Sgt. Terrell Marshall, spokesman for the Sacramento Police
Department, estimated that 15 indoor pot farms have been found in the
city this year.

"This seems to be a pretty big trend going on," he said.

The Capay Valley raid began about 8:30 a.m., with officials from
YoNET and the state Department of Justice's Campaign Against
Marijuana Planting dropping into the site by helicopter.

The marijuana plants -- surrounded and hidden by dense vegetation --
were several miles off Highway 16, near the town of Rumsey.

The plants towered up to 9 feet, Giorgi said, with 4- to 15-inch buds.

"We're talking very good marijuana -- high content THC," he said,
referring to the active ingredient in cannabis.

Based on a camp found at the plot, Giorgi estimated that four workers
had been tending the plants -- very diligently, he added -- which
were on a drip irrigation system. Officials made no arrests in the raid.

Giorgi said arrests are rare in raids like Wednesday's because
workers often wear camouflaged clothing and know trails that lead out
of the area.

"It's hard to go in there in covert or stealth mode because of the
vegetation," he said.

The Elk Grove raid began about 9 a.m.

The two houses -- one on Misty River Way, the other near Maybeck Way
- -- are half-million-dollar houses, a few blocks from parks and schools.

According to Sacramento County property records, the houses were
bought in November and December by Xu Liang Chen, a Milpitas resident.

A woman identifying herself as Yuki Huang, his wife, confirmed the
couple own the properties but said she was unaware of the raid.

She said she believes the properties are rentals. Chen wasn't home to
comment, she said.

No arrests were made Wednesday.

As his officers finished cleaning out one of the houses, Sgt. Scott
French, who supervises the Elk Grove street crimes unit, said he
couldn't say if the day's raid was the end of the operation.

"It just keeps rolling," he said. "It is possible there could be
more. Or it is possible we may be done, finally."

The streak of raids this summer began with a serendipitous find on
June 8, French said.

A home on Paso Fino Way caught fire, and firefighters stumbled across
an indoor pot farm. The electrical hijacking used to provide the
light had apparently gone awry.

French said there doesn't appear to be a direct connection between
that incident and the August raids, but the earlier raid generated
publicity, which brought in a flurry of tips from residents calling
about rarely seen neighbors, living in houses with strange noises,
unkempt lawns and darkened windows.

"A lot of the fallout from Paso Fino carried us to these homes
today," French said.

Also in late June, eight men were arrested in an operation that
targeted two homes in Elk Grove.

Officials say those marijuana operations were unrelated to the ones
raided this month.

Because of the size of the drug ring, French said local agencies had
handed it off to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

French and Hoernke did not say what led them to the two most recent houses.

Instead of furniture, the Misty River Way home contained a tangle of
electrical cords and ventilation hoses snaking around bags of young
marijuana plants.

Air filtration units crowded a hallway, and blue sheets covered the windows.

"I like the fact that they're busting them, but I don't like the fact
that they're in my back yard," said Paul Allen, who lives a block
away from the house.