PINELLAS DRUG STING NETS 18 GROW HOUSES, 18 ARRESTS

CLEARWATER - After a monthslong investigation prompted by an anonymous
tip, authorities today swooped down on 18 marijuana grow houses they
say were coordinated by one man.

Eighteen people were arrested and about $31,000 was seized, said
Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Marianne Pasha.
Detectives also dismantled the operations, confiscating more than 850
plants along with humidifiers, air conditioners, lamps and filtration
systems used to grow them.

Among other items taken was a copy of the magazine "High Times" that
has an article on how to build a low-budget grow-room

Federal search warrants were executed at three homes in Clearwater,
three in Tarpon Springs, three in Dunedin, three in Palm Harbor and
one in St. Petersburg. At five other homes, narcotics detectives
knocked on doors and were let inside by the occupants, said Lt. Robert
Alfonso of the sheriff's narcotics division.

[redacted], 52, and his wife, [redacted], 60, live at one of the
Clearwater homes, [redacted]. [He] coordinated activities among the 18
addresses that were targeted in the investigation, and he and the
other seventeen people arrested today are expected to be charged federally.

The operation was given the name Operation Family Tree because many of
the suspects are related by blood or marriage or were friends. A
father and daughter oversaw one operation, and a man, wife and son
were involved in at least one other, narcotics detectives said.

The anonymous tip came in by telephone through Crime Stoppers, said
authorities, who would say nothing more about the tip. The tipster was
given a code number and could qualify for a reward of up to $1,000 if
he or she comes forward, sheriff's officials said.

Detectives eventually "uncovered a network a=80| of family members who
decided to work this countywide," said Capt. Mike Platt of the
sheriff's narcotics squad. "This is not an isolated case where people
decide to grow some pot plants in their house."

Rental homes were used for the grow operations, he said. Some were
found today to contain as few as 23 plants; some had up to 100.
Investigators say the coordinated effort annually could have produced
a harvest worth more than $4 million.

One of the houses raided is at 1551 Georgia Ave. in Palm Harbor.
Unmarked vehicles pulled up, and men dressed in white went inside,
said [redacted], a neighbor and schoolteacher who saw this as she left
for work in Pasco County.

"This is the second time in five years we have had a grow house within
steps of my house, and I am sick of it," she said. Both grow houses
were rental properties, she said.

"There must be a lot of them out there," [she] said.