HOUSES LINKED TO ASIAN GANGS

When authorities began finding marijuana grow houses in Southern
California this year, they were shocked by their sophistication and by
the complex Asian crime syndicates believed responsible for their
establishment.

But after months of examining their history and movement,
investigators say the appearance of the crime syndicates in the region
was practically inevitable.

An organization similar to the purported network of marijuana grow
houses established by Asian criminal organizations in the Inland
Valley was first discovered nearly a decade ago in British Columbia,
authorities say. A combination of factors fueled its move south:
Canadian police focused more attention on its activity, and competing
Canadian gangs began to set up their own grow houses, saturating the
market.

What's more, the large size of the customer base for marijuana in
Southern California made the southward move smart from an economic
standpoint.

But ultimately, the rise in marijuana grow houses - in the Inland
Valley and elsewhere - is driven by the high value of the potent,
THC-rich "B.C. bud" strain of the drug that can be grown only in
controlled indoor environments.

The value per pound of the drug - as high as $6,000 - is on par with
the value of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, making the
production of marijuana a significant cash generator for criminal
organizations.

And operating a grow house is relatively low risk. A person with no
criminal record who is convicted of marijuana cultivation might be
sentenced to only probation. Those found producing equivalent amounts
of harder drugs such as cocaine or heroin could face up to 25 years in
prison, said Michael Abacherli, a San Bernardino County deputy
district attorney.

Origins in Canada

About eight years ago, Canadian authorities first began to discover
grow houses operated by Asian crime organizations. The setup of the
homes was similar to what is being found now in the Inland Valley.

The interiors of homes were gutted to maximize marijuana production.
Complex electric, irrigation, lighting and temperature systems were
established to produce the highest quality marijuana possible and in
the greatest volume.

As Canadian police began cracking down on the homes, techniques used
by the Asian crime syndicates were mimicked by native gangs, creating
direct competition.

"There is a war going on up in Canada," said Los Angeles County
sheriff's Capt. Dennis Werner, chief of the department's Narcotics
Bureau. "The war is between Asian (drug-trafficking organizations) and
outlaw motorcycle gangs who are looking to move in on the Asian families."

With the increased competition, the Asian groups began heading south,
doing business in Washington and Oregon before moving into California.

About a year ago, a group of 41 grow houses run by a single Asian
crime syndicate was busted in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas,
said Sarah Pullen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration. Fifteen more Northern California homes were busted in
January.

"The same techniques we're seeing here are the same they used in
Canada," said Jackie Long, special agent supervisor for the California
Department of Justice.

"Because we are the most populous state in the nation, they've got a
lot of customers. That's a big part of why it's here," said Art
Marinello, supervisor for the San Bernardino County West End Narcotic
Enforcement Team. "Now they don't have to run the risk of transporting
it through the borders or across multiple states."

During the first few months of busts, local authorities suspected that
local marijuana grow houses were tied to Asian crime rings responsible
for homes in Northern California and Canada. New evidence has surfaced
to confirm those suspicions, Abacherli said.

"A lot of the names we're now starting to tie in to activity both up
north and down here - I believe that's a relatively recent
development," he said. "Hopefully we're going to identify all the
different players. ... It's an amazing network, to say the least."

Major players hidden

In the Inland Valley, grow houses have been set up by individuals, by
groups of people working on only one house, and by coordinated
organizations that have in some cases converted at least 10 suburban
homes, authorities say.

Authorities are struggling to arrest the major players - those with
ties to Asian organized crime - who are financing and overseeing the
more sophisticated networks.

"The idea behind any kind of organized crime is they layer the
responsibility and the knowledge of who is at the top directing and
controlling the money," said Lt. Greg Garland, head of the Narcotics
Bureau for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "You don't
know if you've hit the top guy, ever. There may be someone above him,
as well."

Within large organizations, the work of setting up grow houses is
divided as it would be in any other company, investigators say.

One person is responsible for locating appropriate homes to buy or
rent. Another may specialize in setting up the electric systems needed
for the operations.

With such a division of work, the people at the bottom of the ladder -
in many cases poor immigrants working for meager wages - are the ones
tending to the homes.

When investigators discover and raid grow houses, these workers often
are the ones arrested. Those responsible for the rest of the work can
escape detection fairly easily.

"A lot of people who are baby-sitting these houses really are just
baby-

sitting," and aren't the brains behind the operation, Abacherli
said.

One Chinese man recently arrested in San Bernardino County had just
arrived in the United States, Abacherli said. He was tending to a grow
house to pay off those who helped him enter the country.

Not all the arrests have been lowly workers, however. As authorities
have linked grow houses to single criminal entities, several people
who appear to be higher in the chain of command have been arrested.

They drive nice cars, live in expensive neighborhoods, and have been
in the United States for a while.

"We have had a few people who are more deeply involved than they are
admitting, and their lifestyle shows that," Abacherli said.

But because those arrested in connection with a grow house might not
be at the home when raids take place, they often claim they had no
knowledge of what was happening inside. Many of the people listed as
owners of the homes make such claims.

Dominic Luna, arrested in April in connection with a bust in Phelan,
said he had no knowledge of what was happening inside the home.

"I was just the landlord who rented the houses out," he
said.

Arrested in similar circumstances was Mei Yi Lu, the owner of a
property in Corona that was converted into a grow house and raided in
May.

Her attorney, George Leung-Chu Young, said Lu was the owner of the
home but did not have any knowledge of the grow operation that she
says was conducted by renters.

"Whoever was there growing marijuana, if indeed that's what happened,
has no connection to my client," Young said. "The fact that my client
is the landlord doesn't mean she's strictly liable."

Young said that Lu, a San Gabriel resident who has lived in the area
for 10 years, has no connection to Chinese gangs.

"(She) is a very mild-mannered housewife. She has a 6-year-old boy and
has no criminal record in China or the United States."

County's two main groups

From the more than a dozen major marijuana busts this year in San
Bernardino County, investigators have been able to tie at least 17
grow houses to two major Asian criminal organizations.

"We have found that there's some definite links," said Garland, of the
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "We've found at least two
different strands of people that have organized in some fashion to
organize as many locations as possible to grow marijuana."

Flow charts resembling family trees are used to identify and organize
by duty each person known as a member of one of the two groups.

The first group, named by authorities after the person suspected to be
its leader, has been linked to eight grow houses, Garland said. The
leader has not been found.

The group, like many large

marijuana-growing operations, gives people specific jobs such as
bypassing electricity, purchasing equipment, and tending to the grow.

"The way they've got it divided up is, each of the people within this
group has limited knowledge," Garland said. "They're attempting to
have not too many things linked to the higher-up people in the
organization."

The second group, whose leader also has not been arrested, has been
linked to nine grow houses, Garland said. Its setup is similar to the
first group.

Diverse enterprises

For many criminal organizations, marijuana grow houses have become the
cash cow that pays for their other activities, according to
authorities.

The homes are greatly profitable, and the penalties for being caught
growing marijuana are relatively light. For criminals, the benefits
greatly outweigh the risks.

A typical house found in the recent wave of marijuana busts can hold
an average of 1,000 plants, Werner said. With each plant producing
about half a pound of dry, smokable marijuana, a single house can
produce 500 pounds of pot per harvest.

Many houses produce three or four harvests per year if their indoor
environments are controlled correctly.

So, do the math: With a street value of $3,000 to $5,000 per pound,
and with three or four harvests per year, a successful grow house can
bring in between $4.5 million and $10 million a year, Werner said.

"Now you can see why someone would pay $800,000 for a house and gut
it," Werner said. "The money is huge, and everybody is jumping in."

When the pot is unloaded by criminal organizations, it is not always
exchanged for cash. Much of it is swapped for weapons, different
drugs, or to purchase new cars or additional houses, investigators
say.

Larger, more sophisticated gangs will use the profits from grow houses
to fund legitimate businesses, said Sgt. Joseph Pemberton, a narcotics
agent for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

"Like any organized crime, you don't just have one business. You're
going to have prostitution, you're going to have extortion, you can
have money-laundering operations," Long said. "There are some
organizations that are going on right now that are international."