Pubdate: Sat, 16 Apr 2016
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Jesse Paul

"PIRATE GROWS" ON RISE IN COLO.

Illicit Pot Increasingly Is Being Grown in Homes and Shipped Out of State.

Authorities say organized crime elements with out-of-state ties 
increasingly are using Colorado homes to grow large amounts of 
marijuana illegally for transport and sale across the nation. About 
30 locations, many of them homes, were targeted in raids on Thursday 
by authorities searching for illegal marijuana operations.

The uptick in these so-called "pirate grows" has become a priority 
for federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, who have 
dedicated resources to quashing the trend.

"We've seen more and more of it," said Tom Gorman, director of the 
Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. "When we first 
legalized marijuana, we saw pockets of it - a lot of Colorado people 
growing illegally for the black market. Now, you're seeing a lot of 
people coming in from out of state to hide behind the legal market." 
"It's gotten really out of hand," he added. While many of these 
illicit operations have gravitated to areas around Pueblo and 
Colorado Springs, the problem spans the state, including the Denver 
area, investigators say. Criminals set up shop in homes they rent or 
buy, then quickly begin cultivating hundreds, or even thousands, of plants.

Law enforcement flexed its muscle Thursday morning by raiding about 
30 locations - many of them homes - between El Paso County and the 
north Denver area as part of an operation targeting a pot trafficking 
organization.

Also, over 12 days this month, authorities in Pueblo raided eight 
homes with suspected illegal marijuana grows filled with hundreds of 
mature and developing pot plants.

In each case, the county sheriff's office found the residents were 
from out of state - many with international ties. "Their plan is to 
send it out of state," said Pueblo County Sheriff Kirk Taylor. 
"That's well-documented."

The rise in these pirate grows coincides with a similar boom in 
massive illicit outdoor pot cultivation operations, a number of which 
were discovered in the past year on federal land. In several of those 
cases, federal authorities arrested Mexicans on felony drug 
cultivation charges.

The illicit house grows, however, provide a year-round way to produce 
higher-quality pot as opposed to the weather-dependent method of 
planting marijuana out in the open and hoping it is not discovered as 
it matures.

"Now, instead of public land grows, they are coming into 
communities," Taylor said. "They are buying and renting homes and 
putting these (grows) in basements and garages."

In plain sight

 From March 30 to April 10, 12 people - all from Florida - were 
arrested as part of the Pueblo-area raids that resulted in the 
seizure of some 2,400 marijuana plants. Five of those suspects 
originally were from Cuba, authorities say.

In one of the raids during that span, deputies also seized 67 pot 
plants from a Pueblo West home inhabited by two Russian immigrants 
who recently moved to the area from New York.

Many of the operations were prompted by tips from the public. One 
came after authorities in Texas stopped a vehicle full of marijuana 
grown in Pueblo.

"They can kind of hide in plain sight," said Barbra Roach, special 
agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Denver 
division. "They don't try to abide by the law in any way. For a 
while, they were going into warehouses. Now they are just going into homes."

Roach said the unintended consequences of the illicit grows can be 
vast, from fires to water pollution to devaluing rental property.

"There's a lot of law enforcement activity focused on this," said 
John Walsh, Colorado's U.S. attorney. "These operations violate 
federal law but also state law."

Walsh said the DEA has been working with local police departments and 
sheriff's offices to address the problem. He pointed to an operation 
last year that targeted 20 people in southern Colorado's Fremont and 
Custer counties accused of harvesting marijuana at eight properties 
and shipping it to Florida via UPS.

Federal agents and local police confiscated 28 guns, more than 
$25,000 and 50 pounds of processed marijuana as part of that case.

"We probably have more substantial marijuana trafficking cases in 
this office than we have ever had," he said.

Colorado law allows people 21 and older to grow up to six plants - 
three or fewer of which can be mature, flowering plants - provided 
it's done in an "enclosed, locked space."

Some cities have limited the number of plants that can be grown in a 
single house, and some cities have imposed other zoning or code 
restrictions on home-growing. Denver has a cap of 12 plants.

Some illegal home grows have been discovered after residents called 
police to report marijuana smells.

The Thursday morning operations targeted at least one Denver home 
that was nestled in a neighborhood near the intersection of Federal 
Boulevard and West First Avenue. Neighbors say officers dragged out 
stacks of marijuana plants and growing materials.

Money and crime

Those living nearby knew the residents were cultivating pot - partly 
because of the smell - but were surprised by the amount seized from the home.

"They didn't cause any problems or anything," said neighbor Joshua 
Bower. "They just had a whole bunch of weed in their house."

But in Huerfano County, just south of Pueblo, Sheriff Bruce Newman 
said he is worried about the potential of violent crime accompanying 
the increase in illegal pot grows he's seeing.

"There's a lot of people coming from out of state," he said. "It's 
getting to be a pretty big trend."

An intruder was killed at a home about 20 miles west of Walsenburg on 
March 14 as he tried to break into a house with a 400-plant illicit 
cultivation operation where two Florida residents lived.

A Fort Morgan-area man was killed as he and two others tried to break 
into the rural house near the intersection of Huerfano County roads 
520 and 530. Newman believed the intruders were after the illegal pot.

He added: "Anytime there's money to be made, crime comes with it."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom