NEIGHBORHOODS GOING TO POT

Leon Nunn stepped out his front door one recent afternoon only to be
waved back by drug agents using a battering ram on a neighbor's home.

The half-million-dollar home in the quiet subdivision was found to be
stuffed with marijuana plants, growing in trays under bright lights.

More than 40 similar busts have been reported over the last two
months in and around Sacramento.

'Just A Real Quiet House'

Pot cartels with suspected ties to Asian organized crime in San
Francisco have been buying suburban homes and turning them into
marijuana hothouses.

"We had no idea. I was shocked," said Nunn, a minister. "We never saw
them or heard from them. It was just a real quiet house on the block."

Until now, West Coast law enforcement agencies have been more
concerned about outdoor marijuana gardens, often planted in public
forests or parks by Mexican cartels.

The Drug Enforcement Agency saw a 50 percent increase nationwide in
indoor operations in 2005 from the year before, said Gordon Taylor,
who heads the DEA in central and Northern California.

Walls and ceilings of the Elk Grove home were smashed to allow for
filtration systems that vented the odor of pot through the attic.
Extension cords and makeshift electric panels illegally tapped into
the outside grid to avoid detection and save on the power bill.

For all the secrecy, many neighbors were suspicious because the
owners neglected to mow or water their lawns.

"We suspected it, when you spend $500,000 on a home and let it go to
pot, so to speak," said Marilyn Smith, who lives across from another
Elk Grove home that was a marijuana factory. "Nobody was ever there
and the blinds were all closed."