MASTERMIND OF OREGON'S BIGGEST INDOOR POT GROWING OPERATION GETS 10 YEARS

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- The mastermind of the biggest indoor marijuana-growing
operation ever uncovered in Oregon has been sentenced to 10 years in
prison.

"I freely admit my guilt," Kenneth Midkiff, 43, said Thursday in U.S.
District Court. "I'm very sorry for the pain and damage I've inflicted on
the community and society. I'm probably most distressed by the damage I've
inflicted on my family."

Midkiff pleaded guilty in January to money laundering and conspiracy to
manufacture between 1,000 and 3,000 kilograms of marijuana. He also
forfeited more than $1 million he had deposited in a Swiss bank.

Midkiff told U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan that his family has suffered
emotional and financial loss, and now will suffer his absence.

Gary Ross Williams, 47, Midkiff's partner, was also sentenced to 10 years.
He had pleaded guilty to the same charges and forfeited $773,000 earned
from the operation.

Hogan ruled that Williams played a major role in the criminal conspiracy
and deserved the same sentence as Midkiff, even though Williams tried to
downplay his role.

A third defendant, Rocky Lee Reno, 45, was sentenced to 2{ years in prison
after Hogan found he was merely an employee. Reno probably will be accepted
into an intensive federal boot camp in California, where he may be released
after six months if he completes the program.

More indictments are expected as the investigation continues, said
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall.

Court records indicate Midkiff and Williams could have received life in
prison, but got less time for cooperating with the investigation. None of
the three men had a prior criminal record.

Engdall said the operation had been growing marijuana for at least six
years and distributing it along the West Coast.

Acting on a tip from a neighbor who saw tons of potting soil disposed of in
a trench, police raided Midkiff's 165-acre property near Cheshire last
year.

Inside an old Quonset hut, they found a growing operation larger than a
football field with hundreds of 1,000-watt grow lights that moved on
overhead tracks. An overhead watering system nurtured an estimated 7,000
marijuana plants. The entire operation was powered by a huge diesel
generator housed in a muffled room.

About 300 pounds of processed marijuana was found in the building and a
barn on the property.

One more defendant, Curtis Vance Gray, 50, remains to be sentenced.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)