GROW HOUSES FOUND BY STATE PARK

Miami-Based Group Used Homes In Secluded Areas, Officials
Say

SARASOTA COUNTY -- Deputies raided two marijuana grow houses this week
in rural homes east of Interstate 75 that authorities say are
connected to a Cuban drug ring based in the Miami area.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has busted 18 grow houses with
Cuban homeowners or tenants in North Port since April, and say this
week's busts have another key similarity.

"They're looking for areas that offer some seclusion," said Capt. Jeff
Bell of the Sheriff's Office.

In North Port and some Charlotte and Lee county cities, that meant
renting or buying vacant homes in areas where the sagging housing
market meant lower overhead costs and fewer neighbors.

This week's busts netted about 700 marijuana plants -- about 200
mature enough for harvest -- from homes in neighborhoods where houses
have plenty of distance from each other.

Deputies on Tuesday raided 6570 Old Ranch Road in the Myakka Valley
Ranches neighborhood, a 5-acre property where deputies found 600
plants in a barn converted to a grow house.

Another barn was in the process of being converted to a grow house.
The house was purchased in November 2006 for $550,000.

The men at the property had told the neighborhood association they
were starting a dog breeding business, Bell said.

Like many of the busts, neighbors reported suspicious activity,
including no trash pick-up and the sounds of construction at the
property, and detectives conducted months of surveillance, Bell said.

No arrests were made at the raid, but the men at that house had been
seen going to and from 3777 Hidden River Road, an 11-acre property in
a neighborhood with a private air strip, Bell said.

The house was purchased in February for $680,000, which was $100,000
more than it sold for two years earlier.

Deputies raided the Hidden River Road property Wednesday night and
found both the inside of the home and an airplane hangar had been
converted to grow houses, Bell said. There were about 80 plants in the
hangar.

The occupants of the home had prematurely harvested about 80 plants
growing in the master bedroom and bathroom, and Bell said he thinks
they knew about the previous night's raid.

Arrested at the Hidden River Road home were two Cubans, Hector Diaz,
48 and Oreste Cordero-Garcia, 42, who told deputies he is a
self-employed farmer.

They face charges of trafficking in cannabis, cultivating marijuana
and manufacturing drug paraphernalia.

All of the grow houses discovered by authorities in Sarasota County
had either a property owner, grower or tenant related to Cuba and a
"fingerprint" of the sometimes sophisticated handiwork needed to steal
electricity, Bell said.

Detectives are still investigating the latest grow houses, searching
for other possible crimes connected to purchasing the property or
financing the operation, he said.