Pubdate: Sun, 24 Sep 2006
Source: News-Press (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The News-Press
Contact:  http://www.news-press.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1133
Author: Rachel Myers

GROWHOUSES BECOMING NUMEROUS IN SW FLA.

Perhaps it was how the neighbors always kept the shades  drawn and 
garage doors closed.

Maybe it could have been the skunky smell that wafted  through the 
air, or the fact that the house seemed  somewhat abandoned altogether.

"I didn't know what it was exactly," Cape Coral  resident Linda Barr 
said, "but I knew they were doing  something they shouldn't be."

Last October police raided the house on S.E. 15th  Street, busting 
two men for running an extensive  marijuana cultivation operation 
where 103 plants,  valued at $250,000, were seized.

It is just one in a string of elaborate efforts, also  known as "grow 
houses," that authorities in southern  Florida have broken up in the past year.

In the Cape, where the majority of Lee County busts  take place, 
there have been 34 raids so far this year,  11 more than the total 
for last year.

In Lehigh Acres, where Lee County Sheriff's spokesman  Angelo Vaughn 
said all of his department's recent busts  have gone down, 14 have 
been found since January 2005.

Last year in Collier County, there were 35 busts -- by  far the 
highest in the past four years.

And just last week, officials in Port St. Lucie, on  Florida's east 
coast, announced the break up of a grow  house ring that included 
more than 50 houses and 4,000  pounds of the plant that yielded 
millions of dollars  each harvest.

What gives with the growth?

"Drug operations tend to follow trends," Cape Coral  Deputy Chief Rob 
Petrovich said. "Back in the 1980s and  '90s, we saw a lot of acid 
(LSD) and crack-cocaine.  Now, one of the newest trends seems to be 
grow houses."

But it's not just the sale of the plant authorities are  concerned 
about. Growers, they said, are becoming more  organized -- and more dangerous.

For more on this story, check back later at  news-press.com.

Coming tomorrow: news-press.com debuts a new crime Web  site at 
www.news-press.com/crime. Check every police  call in your 
neighborhood. Murders, sex offenses,  burglaries, assaults, thefts 
and just about anything  else.

If it's a crime and the Lee County Sheriff's Office  responded to it, 
you can find it with the click of a  mouse. Initially, computer 
programmers will update the  site weekly. news-press.com is working 
with police  departments in Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Sanibel and 
hopes to add those to the database soon.
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