DEPUTIES FIND MOUNTAIN POT `FACTORY'

A Santa Cruz man suspected in a peeping and sexual assault spree is
facing additional charges as alleged leader of a multimillion-dollar
marijuana operation, authorities said Tuesday.

Sheriff's investigators said William Warner Wilson, 37, oversaw an
indoor marijuana farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains where jump-suited
employees grew $100,000 worth of the illicit weed a month.

"This grow operation was without a doubt the most sophisticated we've
ever seen," said Santa Cruz County sheriff's detective Dan Campos. "It
was a factory."

Wilson was arrested at 12:30 a.m. Saturday at his rented home in Santa
Cruz on a warrant charging him with burglary and assault with intent
to commit rape. He also was booked on a charge of marijuana possession
for sale.

On Tuesday, Wilson appeared briefly in court for arraignment, but the
hearing was rescheduled for next Tuesday while he shops for a lawyer.
He remains in custody with bail set at $1.25 million.

The warrant charging sexual assault and burglary stemmed from a
break-in Feb. 2 in which a woman in her 30s awoke to find a stranger
in her bedroom touching her. He fled when she confronted him, but
fingerprints left behind led police to Wilson.

When police searched Wilson's home for evidence linking him to those
cases, they said they stumbled upon an unexpected find.

Drawers and boxes were overflowing with piles of cash totaling nearly
$40,000, Campos said. There were two handguns, five rifles and
marijuana paraphernalia, he said. Documents and photographs indicated
a marijuana production operation at property Wilson owns in the
mountains, he said.

Police called in the sheriff's narcotics squad, which converged on
Wilson's 20-acre hilltop spread off Branciforte Drive. The property is
enclosed by a 5-foot-tall chain-link fence topped with electrified
wire, with an electronic iron security gate blocking entry.

Hidden from view at the top of a long driveway were two trailers, a
propane tank, utility trucks and a 1,500-square-foot wooden building,
Campos said.

Inside the building, investigators found three rooms with 445
marijuana plants in various stages of growth, Campos said.

Investigators found trash cans filled with loose marijuana leaves and
an attic in which 30 pounds of buds were packaged in half-pound bags
worth $2,500 apiece, Campos said. Authorities have moved to seize
Wilson's assets and believe he may have buried some of his profits.

"The way this was set up was just brilliant," Campos said. "He's got
it down to a science. The place was alive with the sounds of
generators and fans."

Each room in the building had 40 or more 1,000-watt lamps used to grow
the plants indoors, while a basement had vats filled with nutrient
solutions, Campos said.

Meanwhile, Santa Cruz police are still working to link Wilson to a
host of peeping, prowling and sexual assault reports.