Pubdate: Thu, 08 May 2014
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2014 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Authors: Mark Emmons, Mark Gomez and Robert Salonga
Page: 1

GROW HOMES TAX DEPLETED POLICE FORCE

SAN JOSE - The one-story house in the city's quiet Coyote Creek 
neighborhood wasn't particularly noteworthy. But inside, police found 
marijuana plants. And a dead body. Police have not said how the 
marijuana growing operation in the Eppling Lane house might be 
connected to the 26-year-old man who was shot to death there on March 
17. But the homicide and two recent electrical fires in San Jose 
homes highlight the dangers that hidden city pot gardens can bring 
into unsuspecting communities.

Illegal residential marijuana farms are hardly a new phenomenon in 
the Bay Area, but the numbers appear to be increasing at a time when 
law enforcement resources are dwindling and police are focused on 
more pressing priorities-tracking violent crime, gang activity and 
keeping a patrol presence on the streets.

"I'm comfortable saying that there are over 100 of these houses and 
the majority are in the city of San Jose," said Sgt. John Spagnola, 
who heads the two man Marijuana Eradication Team for the Santa Clara 
County Sheriff's Office, the only South Bay agency with deputies 
devoted solely to getting rid of marijuana. "We have tips right now 
that we just haven't had time to deal with yet. We could constantly 
be busting them."

Just how much the problem has grown is difficult to quantify, law 
enforcement officials said. Spagnola could only say they are 
receiving more investigative leads than they have in the past three years.

Meanwhile, San Jose police no longer have a centralized method of 
tracking the number of these so-called grow houses after the 
Narcotics Covert Investigations unit became a casualty of department 
short-staffing two years ago.

What is clear is that when these houses go up in smoke, as they often 
do, the result is a nightmare for firefighters responding to blazes 
caused by marijuana growers' shoddy handiwork in bypassing electrical 
meters to stay off the radar of PG&E. Often, the houses also have 
chemicals and mold inside.

"It's basically a hazmat scene because it's a nursery with all these 
pesticides," said Capt. Cleo Doss of the San Jose Fire Department. 
"But a bigger issue is the electricity. It's an invisible killer. So 
if you make a wrong move, it can become very dangerous quickly."

That, along with other hazards such as barred windows, prevents 
firefighters from aggressively battling a grow-house blaze. They're 
left to focus on keeping the fire from spreading to other homes while 
they wait for PG&E to cut the power.

"We wear protective clothing and breathing apparatus," added Vic 
Massenkoff, an investigator with the Contra Costa County Fire 
Protection District. "But we have nothing to protect us from 
electrocution. We might as well be walking into a fire naked."

Indoor pot operations often are in otherwise safe, quiet residential 
neighborhoods. From the outside, they look like regular houses, 
hiding in plain sight until they catch fire, which happened twice 
within four days in San Jose in March.

"They want to blend into the neighborhood," said Special Agent Casey 
Rettig, of the Drug Enforcement Agency's San Francisco district. 
"They don't want to stand out."

Growers usually rent homes, paying the owner in cash. They gut the 
interior and convert it into a sophisticated greenhouse with 
high-intensity lights and air-filtration systems. And the operations, 
Spagnola said, can produce several climate-controlled crops a year, 
netting growers more than $1 million annually.

California, Rettig said, is "quite the hotbed" for cultivation 
because of the potency of the marijuana grown here. In 2013, about 54 
percent of indoor marijuana plants seized in the United States came 
from California, according to DEA figures.

"This has been building over the last couple of years," said 
Massenkoff, whose agency in February adopted new rules for fighting 
grow-house fires after dealing with 25 such blazes over the past 
three years. "There's a real demand for California indoor bud 
everywhere, including on the East Coast."

In the South Bay, grow houses are often run by gangs affiliated with 
Vietnamese coffee houses, Spagnola said.

San Jose police are tightlipped about the fatal shooting of Tony 
Thanh Nhan Nguyen at the Eppling Lane house, which also served as a 
school bus stop. There have been no arrests. Sources said pot was 
being grown on the premises.

Darryl Ospring, a Coyote Creek Neighborhood Association board member, 
said there were two grow houses in the community previously. The 
first was discovered when a fire destroyed an indoor pot farm about 
three years ago. A year later, the association reported another 
suspicious house that turned out to be a grow operation.

But the homicide, Ospring said, has sent shivers through the neighborhood.

"The murder has thrown us for loop," said Ospring, 61, who has lived 
there for 34 years. "It's shocking because we have worked so hard to 
make this neighborhood safe."

In the past, San Jose's dedicated narcotics unit investigated grow 
houses. But now, any San Jose police investigations on the houses 
falls upon the already overtaxed patrol force - when available.

"You need search warrants, an entry team, a perimeter team," said 
Sgt. Heather Randol, a police spokeswoman. "It's scarcely done. We 
know the importance of stopping grow houses because they bring crime 
and blight, and the theft of power affects everybody. We need to find 
the resources to do that."

Spagnola's team with the Sheriff's Office typically investigates the 
kind of cases that resulted in the January arrest of three people and 
the seizure of more than $700,000 in pot - including 307 plants - at 
two homes. One house, not far from an elementary school, was guarded 
by a pit bull. The second was a 2,800 square-foot, million-dollar 
plus home located near a golf course.

But now the unit is gearing up for the outdoor growing season and 
that complicates investigations of indoor grow houses.

Ospring said her neighbors believe more needs to be done.

"We don't want this on the back burner," she said. "It shouldn't be 
swept under the rug."

[sidebar]

TELLTALE SIGNS OFAN INDOOR MARIJUANA GROW OPERATION

Windows are always dark with blinds drawn shut.

Additional water lines and/ or electrical cords running into the residence.

Excessive security such as guard dogs, cameras, fencing and"keep out" signs.

People seen entering with unrecognizable equipment as well as 
building materials and agricultural items such as plastic sheeting, 
piping, fertilizer bags, potting soil and pots.

Unusual traffic, such as tenants coming and going at odd hours.

Little or no garbage is brought to the curb each week.

Strong and strange odors coming from the house.

Heavy condensation on the inside of the windows or roof.

Humming sound of fans or generators.

Source: Drug Enforcement Agency

2013 Cannabis Eradication / Suppression

4,395,240 total indoor and outdoor cultivated plants

361,727 indoor plants

4,033,513 outdoor plants

California statistics

2,903,887 total indoor and outdoor cultivated plants

196,096 indoor plants

2,707,791 outdoor plants

Source: Drug Enforcement Agency
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom