COUPLE HELD IN POT RING

Indoor Plantations: Gutted Homes Were Turned Into Greenhouses.

Sought for several years by California law-enforcement authorities,
the alleged ringleader of a criminal network suspected of producing as
much as $25 million worth of high-grade marijuana a year during the
past decade has been captured by San Jose police.

The arrest of Mi Suk Edberg, 55, and a man authorities identified as
her companion, Kwang Sik Ho, 48, occurred Tuesday afternoon during a
police stakeout of a home on Pruneridge Avenue in Santa Clara, where
the couple allegedly gutted the interior and set up a virtual indoor
plantation in January, police said.

Deputy District Attorney Rob Baker said Edberg's growing operation at
the Santa Clara residence and another location in West San Jose each
were capable of producing at least $1 million a year of the illegal
weed.

``This was huge,'' Baker said. The operation probably was one of the
biggest going in Northern California and the biggest ever in the
county as far as he was aware, Baker said.

The arrests came as a result of a recent tip from a member of the
Korean community who read a warning about Edberg's growing operation
in a Korean-language newspaper and responded to a police appeal for
information on her whereabouts.

``That was the big break. Otherwise we'd still be looking for her,''
said San Jose police Lt. David DiBari, who said Edberg had been using
countless aliases and addresses to avoid detection and had even
undergone a face lift along the way.

Edberg, arraigned Wednesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court and
held on $10 million bail, is accused of conspiracy and cultivating
marijuana for sale. Bail for Ho, charged with the same offenses, also
is expected to be $10 million when he is arraigned today.

Neither Ho nor Edberg offered resistance when taken into custody,
officers said. Edberg reportedly had $8,000 cash in her possession
when arrested.

Edberg's trafficking organization has been a major supplier of
top-quality pot in the state for at least the past decade,
investigators allege. Several other police agencies were hunting for
Edberg and Ho in connection with pending cases. The couple had been
wanted in El Dorado and Butte counties, in Canyon Country near Los
Angeles and in Sunnyvale, where cultivation facilities had been
established in the past.

According to a police statement, the ring consists of Edberg family
members, including her elderly mother, and others. Members of the
alleged drug ring immigrated to the United States in the 1970s from
South Korea.

Police Sgt. Paul Panighetti said Edberg's practice had been to rent
homes, mainly those owned by fellow Koreans, gut the interiors and
turn them into greenhouses, complete with powerful growing lights,
humidifiers and venting systems. Huge quantities of dirt would then be
moved in and holes would be cut in the attics and subfloors to provide
air flow, he added.

Although the homes were virtually destroyed in the process, the result
of the handiwork was a product that yielded $5,000 a pound,
investigators said.

``We're talking high-grade stuff. This was quite an elaborate
operation,'' Panighetti said. ``With the equipment and the knowledge
they had, you would want these people to work on your garden if they
were in legitimate business. They know what they're doing.''

According to information provided to San Jose police by the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration, the Edberg organization -- as of 1996
and 1997 -- was estimated to be producing $25 million a year in
high-grade marijuana.

Indoor cultivation of marijuana is not particularly new, DiBari said.
Compared with traditional growing, the process does allow for control
over the environment. DiBari said Edberg allegedly was growing about
400 plants each harvest season in each location and was therefore
capable of annually reaping at least $1 million or more.

While other agencies had Edberg under investigation, San Jose police
first began tracking her activities in 1997 after an anonymous tip
sent them to a storage locker near the Civic Center where officers
reportedly seized 13 pounds of marijuana and $120,000 in jewelry. A
warrant subsequently was issued for her arrest.

Prosecutor Baker said Edberg agreed through her attorney to surrender,
but instead took off for Mexico.

She next turned up here again as a criminal suspect in
February.

Police say they learned she was growing marijuana out of a rented home
in West San Jose at the same time the Santa Clara house was in
operation. Investigators discovered her involvement after a fire,
caused by faulty wiring, broke out in the house on Hyde Street. By the
time firefighters arrived, a man who was taking care of the place --
later identified as Jae Lee -- had fled. He later was arrested in Los
Angeles on a San Jose charge of cultivating marijuana.

DiBari said investigators still were poring over bank accounts,
financial records and other documents to better determine how much
money the organization was making and where the funds had gone.

Investigators said they believe Edberg and Ho spent lavishly on
entertainment and vacations. Edberg moved frequently, they said,
maintaining different apartments. At the time of her arrest, officers
found $25,000 in furs at the residence where she was staying, Baker
said.

Anyone with information is asked to call officers Dean Ackerman, Tom
Sims or Rick Williams of the police department's narcotics covert
investigations unit at (408) 277-4115.