Pubdate: Thu, 10 Feb 2011
Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2011 The Modesto Bee
Contact:  http://www.modbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/271
Author: Jeff Jardine
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

POT PLANT STANDS OUT

As pot operations go, this one impressed even the agents who shut it 
down and arrested the six people who ran it.

It wasn't just the numbers: A facility south of Modesto that could 
produce about $8 million worth of marijuana annually. Or the 2,000 
plants seized. Or the53 pounds of dope found ready to be packed and 
sold at a street value of $4,000 a pound.

(They could have packaged it in smaller amounts, labeled it as "value 
added" and charged even more. Hey, it works with baby carrots.)

No, what set this pot plant apart from the rest, in Stanislaus County 
at least, was its sheer scope and complexity.

This one had all the sophistication of a well-honed Humboldt County 
operation, and those folks are the experts.

It had everything, including the business cliche of location, 
location, location, and when it comes to growing marijuana, just 
about anywhere will do. Drug dealers harvest the stuff in national 
forests and on private wild lands.

In 1998, I covered the raid of a lab in an industrial park on 
Winmoore Way in Ceres. Five years later, authorities raided another 
lab in the same building, totally unrelated to the 1998 lab. At least 
it was zoned for light industry.

More often, drug agents will find inner-city homes converted to 
hydroponic pot farms complete with watering and lighting systems.

One of three things usually leads to the bust: Neighbors notice 
increased traffic in and out of the homes and at odd hours of the 
night. Or they'll notice the smell from the tasting room. And they 
might notice a huge spike in their utility bills because the pot 
growers were stealing their power. That's the one meriting a call to 
the police.

The pot farm raided Monday avoided most of the pitfalls that 
generally expose others.

"In this particular operation, they located themselves in an area so 
remote that it had the appearance of being defunct," said Modesto 
police Lt. Clinton Raymer, who heads the multijurisdictional 
Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency. "From the outside, it looked like 
an old chicken processing plant. They left it in run-down condition."

Inside, a different story.

"Where we talk about technology and advancement is where they upped 
the ante, stepped up their game," Raymer said. "What they'd done made 
it far superior to what we've seen in other places."

These herbalists had separated the building into several rooms - all 
sheetrocked and each used for a different stage of growing. They also 
turned it into a two-story facility, growing the plants on the upper 
floor while processing and packaging the weed on the lower level.

"It reminds me of an assembly line process where these guys had 
developed their own assembly line," Raymer said.

And since pot farmers need to eat and take periodic potty breaks like 
anyone else ... "they had a cooking area and restrooms," Raymer said. 
"The only things missing were the bedrooms to sleep in."

Who knows? A miniature Motel 6 might have been part of their grander 
plans. I mean, it's not like they ran this past the county's planning 
department for approval.

"They were still constructing more flooring inside the property," 
Raymer said. "They were still building and expanding out."

It had a complex irrigation system, and a skilled electrician wired 
the building for specialized growing lights, complete with breaker 
boxes and outlets, he said.

"They had a 150-kilowatt diesel generator - the same-sized engine as 
a diesel truck," he said.

Modesto Irrigation District spokeswoman Melissa Williams said150 
kilowatts is enough to power 25 average-sized Modesto homes during 
peak summer use.

"It was huge," Raymer said.

Too big, as it turned out. And way too loud. In fact, the noisy 
diesel generator running 24-7 is what tipped off someone to the 
operation. But they'd thought of that, too, Raymer said.

"They had another generator there, too - a newer model," he said. 
"That second one is basically a silent-running generator about to be 
up and running."

Had they been able to get the silent one going before they got 
busted, there's no telling how long they could have continued and how 
much pot they could have produced.

"It was a very well-concealed operation other than the (diesel) 
generator," he said.

Investigators continued their work Wednesday by serving other search 
warrants outside Stanislaus County. The six defendants are from the 
Bay Area. All were at the pot operation when agents raided it Monday.

The U.S. attorney in Fresno will have first dibs on prosecuting the 
case, since federal agents were involved.

"If not," Raymer said, "we'll take it."

The drug agency, he said, got more than a successful raid.

"They find new ways to hide it, and we find new ways to uncover it," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom