Travis
> There goes another one. This story has a line about a connection
> between home financing and pot growing. I think the numbers they use
> for monetary value of these plants are pulled out of a hat.
>
>
>
>
<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-ex-potbust13apr13,1,2734203.story?coll
=la-default-underdog>http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-ex-potbust13apr13,
1,2734203.story?coll=la-default-underdog
>
> Another Rowland Heights home busted for pot
>
> By Andrew Blankstein
> Times Staff Writer
>
> 9:37 AM PDT, April 12, 2007
>
> Authorities say they've discovered another suburban house in the
> eastern San Gabriel Valley being used to grow millions of dollar in
marijuana.
>
> The latest find occurred late Wednesday on a quiet street in Rowland
> Heights. Sheriff's detectives, responding to a tip, served a search
> warrant on Nearbank Drive, finding a sophisticated pot-growing
> operation. They recovered 1,576 plants worth an estimated $9.4 million.
>
> Over the past month, detectives have recovered nearly $50 million
> worth of pot at seven houses in Diamond Bar, Chino Hills, Rowland
> Heights and Pomona.
>
> Officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the
> number of indoor marijuana plants seized by federal, state and local
> authorities in California has quadrupled in the past three years,
> from at least 54,000 plants to nearly 200,000 in 2006.
>
> The sheriff's departments of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties
> have arrested half a dozen people and expect more arrests as the
> investigations continue.
>
> Many of those seizures have occurred in middle-class and upscale
> suburbs, where the pot growers took advantage of cheap home financing
> -- and minimal credit checks -- to purchase homes and remodel them
> into sophisticated farms, authorities said.
>
> Using equipment that can cost as much as $75,000, the homes were
> transformed into illicit greenhouses complete with blacked-out
> windows, sophisticated irrigation, high-powered and timed lighting
> and ventilation devices to hide the smell of the plants.
>
> Since last August, officials in Northern California have arrested 16
> people and seized 50 suburban pot homes and 24,000 pounds of
> marijuana linked to an Asian organized crime syndicate operating in
> Canada and the U.S. Officials are not sure if those cases are
> connected to those in Southern California.
>
> andrew.blankstein at latimes.com
>
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