POT GROWERS GETTING SAVVIER, POLICE SAY

Indoor Cultivators Learn to Blend With Suburban Neighbors

The first two of a dozen people arrested last year in connection with
a spate of area homes converted into hot-houses for growing marijuana
have pleaded guilty and await sentencing in federal court.

Yet authorities who suspect a San Francisco-based crime syndicate
backed these residential enterprises said indoor marijuana
cultivation is on the rise. With high-profile busts, the illegal
growers have learned to disguise these large-scale operations,
authorities said.

"They read the newspaper and see the TV news," said Gordon Taylor,
who heads the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's Sacramento office.
Taylor spearheaded raids on dozens of homes last year in Sacramento,
Elk Grove, Stockton, Tracy and Lathrop.

In those raids, agents and local police seized thousands of marijuana
plants from homes often in newer residential areas. Neighbors tipped
off authorities when they noticed covered windows and people showing
up occasionally and at strange hours.

Now, Taylor said the growers, who try to go undetected, only convert
the out-of-view second floor for cultivating plants instead of
gutting the entire home. To appear legitimate, a home's first floor
is often furnished and somebody takes up residency, he said.

Officer Christopher Trim, an Elk Grove Police Department spokesman,
said that's what they found in September when officers arrested 15
people and seized 6,800 plants from 14 homes.

"Criminals will adapt and make their operations less detectable,"
Trim said. "The credit goes to the neighbors who think that
something's not quite right."

It is unclear if the dogged investigation and prosecution is paying
off as the number of marijuana plants seized from illegal indoor
growing operations in California more than tripled in recent years,
according to DEA statistics.

In 2004, some 54,569 plants were seized from illegal indoor
operations throughout California, and in 2006, that number rose to
196,994, according to DEA statistics. Indoor operations also have
cropped up in Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado and Washington, Taylor said.

Federal authorities have said that the 12 people arrested last year
in San Joaquin County towns were tied to Asian crime syndicates based
in San Francisco.

Taylor in an interview last week declined to give details on this
connection, saying the investigation is ongoing.

U.S. Attorney Robert Twiss, who is prosecuting the case, also
declined to elaborate on those higher up in the organization, saying
only that, "Those folks haven't been indicted."

Twiss so far negotiated guilty pleas with Terry Tong and Hong Zeng,
both in their early 20s and from the Bay Area. Under the plea
agreements, they are each expected to spend about three years in
federal prison. They would have faced 10 years but received
significant breaks for agreeing to tell investigators everything they
knew, Twiss said.

Twiss also would not say if he anticipates more guilty pleas and
further indictments.

"It's fair to assume these people didn't pick these houses at
random," Twiss said of those under prosecution. "As to who's in
charge - who they are, where they are or what they are - I don't have
anything to offer on that."