INDOOR POT A GROWING BUSINESS

McHenry County Sheriff's police already have seized more marijuana
plants in indoor grow operations this year than they did in all of
2008.

They busted a dozen houses last year and seized a total of 2,188
plants, including the 1,438 plants found in a McHenry rental home,
said Sgt. John Koziol of the McHenry County Sheriff's Office. So far
this year, sheriff's police have found 335 plants in three homes
compared with the 120 plants they found in two indoor operations
during 2008.

Federal and county authorities said drug trafficking had increased
overall throughout northern Illinois. Marijuana - including the potent
and more expensive marijuana typical of indoor grow operations -
remained prevalent, although heroin use increased enough in recent
years to cause an alarming number of fatal overdoses, authorities said.

McHenry County's relatively rural nature and proximity to Chicago made
it attractive for marijuana growers, said Brian Besser, the resident
agent-in-charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Rockford
Resident Office. Some of the produce is smoked locally, but some of it
is distributed far beyond the county borders.

"There's no doubt that McHenry County-sourced marijuana is being
distributed across the United States," Besser said.

Instructions and advice for setting up these types of operations are
readily available online, and the needed equipment is available at
many gardening stores, said Master Sgt. Tim Sebastian of the North
Central Narcotics Task Force. But the growers themselves were much
more sophisticated than stereotypes from the 1970s of a few
college-aged kids growing marijuana to share with their friends.

Marijuana is a profitable cash crop. An ounce of marijuana - about a
third of a sandwich bag - cost about $50 in the 1970s but would go for
$250 to $500 now, Sebastian said. Indoor marijuana growers can produce
better marijuana by tightly controlling the growing environment and
make more money than they would using imported marijuana.

"'I'm basically cutting out the middle-man,'" Sebastian said, speaking
of a hypothetical indoor marijuana grower. "'I'm becoming the
manufacturer and the distributor, which is more money in my pocket.'"

The North Central Narcotics Task Force confiscated 46 plants from two
locations in McHenry County last year. Besides the indoor grows,
McHenry County sheriff's police found 7,744 marijuana plants at five
outdoor locations last year, down from 10,099 plants at eight outdoor
farms in 2008, Koziol said.

Some area indoor marijuana farms included plants at various stages of
growth and a separate area for creating new sprouts from clippings
from a high-quality plant, authorities said. Police also seized
processed marijuana at area grow houses.

Overall, the North Central Narcotics Task Force seized 92,436 grams,
or about 203 pounds, of processed marijuana in McHenry County last
year. The sheriff's office confiscated about 1,561 pounds of
marijuana, including 1,464 pounds seized on a semi-trailer near
Huntley in December. That was up from 28 pounds in 2008 for the
sheriff's office.

Sheriff's police seized 65 grams of heroin last year, up from 53 grams
in 2008, and the North Central Narcotics Task Force seized trace
amounts of heroin in two instances in McHenry County. However, heroin
users typically drive to Chicago or Rockford to buy an amount they
plan to use quickly, Koziol said.

"The people we talk to on the street are telling us [heroin is] the
drug of choice now," said Koziol.

Authorities also see a fair amount of cocaine and prescription drug
abuse, but methamphetamine, a scourge in downstate Illinois, barely
made an appearance here, police said. The North Central Narcotics Task
Force seized about 800 grams of cocaine last year in McHenry County,
while the sheriff's office confiscated 1,181 grams in 2009, down from
3,074 grams in 2008.

McHenry County Sheriff's narcotics leaders said they were expecting to
seize more illegal drugs this year than last year. The narcotics
officers have used 10 search warrants so far this year after executing
30 search warrants in 2009, Koziol said.

The sheriff's office also recently formalized a partnership with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Rockford. The partnership
involves sharing investigative information and having at least two
sheriff's deputies sworn in as federal agents, as well as a federal
agent stationed in McHenry County.

But Sebastian, of the North Central Narcotics Task Force, cautioned
that the amount of drugs police confiscate could have more to do with
where in the sales cycle they catch drug dealers than with overall
drug traffic. He estimated that the task force confiscated a similar
amount of illicit drugs in 2007 and 2008.

[sidebars]

TYPICAL SIGNS OF A MARIJUANA GROW HOUSE

Infrequent visitors to a seemingly unoccupied house

No snow on the home's roof

Signs of tampering with an electric meter or stealing electricity
from neighbors

Windows open in the winter

Covered windows

Mold on the outside of the house

A large amount of garbage

REPORT SUSPICIONS OR TIPS TO:

North Central Narcotics Task Force at www.ncntf.org

McHenry County Sheriff's investigators at 815-334-4750

McHenry County CrimeStoppers can be reached anonymously at
800-762-7867. E-mails can also be sent to tipline@co.mchenry.il.us.