FEDS: DOZENS OF AREA HOMES USED FOR MARIJUANA-GROWING

DALY CITY -- Imagine buying a $700,000 home in a sparkling new
subdivision and learning your neighbor has filled every room in his
house with pungent marijuana plants worth millions.

That's where some Central Valley residents found themselves when
authorities discovered 41 homes being used for an indoor pot-growing
operation and arrested eight Bay Area suspects in the case.

And a San Mateo County real estate agent is at the sticky center of
it all, according to search warrant affidavits obtained by a
Sacramento TV station.

Dickson Hung, a broker with Exit Realty on Gellert Boulevard in Daly
City, was the sales agent for many of the homes the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration said were used to cultivate thousands of
cannabis plants.

DEA agent Gordon Taylor said Wednesday that a sophisticated group
with "all the markings of Asian organized crime" is behind the
operation, which could have produced $74 million worth of marijuana annually.

"You've got what appears to be a very organized criminal group from
the San Francisco Bay Area coming in and plunking marijuana factories
smack dab in the middle of our residential areas," he said by phone
from Sacramento. Taylor said authorities seized 18,600 plants and
arrested seven Asian men and one Asian woman in connection with the
case in August and September. The suspects face 10 years to life in
prison and a $4 million fine if convicted on drug charges.

Now the DEA is working to understand how so many spacious,
single-family homes in newer, "cookie-cutter" neighborhoods became
warehouses for weed.

"People are spending a lot of money to move into these communities,
and the next thing you know, you have a marijuana-growing syndicate
moving in," Taylor said. "That's disturbing."

Exit Realty's office is on the second floor of a nondescript,
cream-colored building in an office park near Hickey Boulevard.
Inside the discreet structure is an elaborate, resort-style plaza
with a small-scale waterfall and palm trees reaching toward the
ceiling's open-air middle.

Hung was not reachable at the office this week, and neither he nor
Exit Realty's owner -- Ernie Chen, according to Exit's receptionist
-- returned calls for comment.

News10 KXTV in Sacramento said this week that affidavits it obtained
from San Joaquin County Court indicate Hung was the common
denominator in many of the real estate deals for 20 houses in
Stockton that were used to grow ganja.

News10 said sales records tie an Antioch real estate agent, Ken
Parker of Prudential California Realty, to most of the 21 homes in
Elk Grove and Sacramento used to reap reefer.

The news agency reported the homes appeared to be bought in spring
and summer and that most were 100 percent financed, meaning the
owners put no money down.

The Stockton Record reported last month that local police were
checking into the financial details behind the operation, including
Hung's involvement.

Taylor would not comment on the specifics of the ongoing
investigation, but said the DEA is working with the IRS, the U.S.
Attorney's Office and local police to examine the case from all angles.

IRS Special Agent Arlette Lee said she could not divulge how her
agency is probing the financial aspects of the case, including real
estate transactions. But she said the IRS frequently assists the DEA,
because drug production is big business.

"There's money to be made from that," she said.

On Sept. 13, Stockton police raided two homes where residents
reported suspicious activity and found retrofitted interiors with
grow-lights and air-filtration systems -- and pot plants in every
available space. The homes were re-wired to bypass their electric
meters and avoid detection from 24-hour power consumption.

News coverage of the raid led to more tips from citizens about houses
with covered windows and rarely seen caretakers, and the matter grew
into a federal-level probe. Stockton police spokesman Pete Smith said
local narcotics officers are still talking with DEA agents, but all
the suspects have been indicted in federal court.

Taylor said the DEA raided two homes Wednesday morning in Galt,
between Stockton and Sacramento, and found evidence of past marijuana
cultivation, but he could not say if there was a connection with the
larger operation.

"We're certainly interested in developing leads if there are more
houses out there," he said. "The public has been very instrumental."