Published in the Sun-Sentinel, Thursday, September 21, 2006
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fgrow21sep21,0,1629472.story?coll=sfla-news-florida
Marijuana grow-house operation broken up in Port St. Lucie
By Derek Simmonsen
Port St. Lucie News
September 21, 2006
Port St. Lucie · It was the promise of the American dream -- home ownership on the cheap -- that brought them to Florida and one of America's fastest-growing cities.
The pitch went something like this: Relocate to Port St. Lucie, get free financing on a home in your name and have most of your expenses paid for two years. The catch? You have to agree to spend that time growing, harvesting and packaging marijuana for sale.
What initially started in May as a call to police about a man chasing someone with a machete on Southwest Glenwood Drive has unraveled a highly organized, multi-state marijuana ring that recruited potential candidates with the promise of one day owning the grow houses they ran. Now, the local investigation has branched off into a large-scale federal prosecution that has charged 35 owners and tenants with drug crimes.
"Today, we have effectively dismantled a well-organized and well-financed marijuana grow-house operation with tentacles that stretched from South Florida to New York," R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said Wednesday.
Of the 35 people charged through federal indictments and criminal complaints, 27 were in custody Wednesday, Acosta said. Four are being held in New Jersey and another was in Orlando waiting to be transferred to South Florida; authorities have information on the whereabouts of the eight who have not been arrested.
A business in New Jersey financed the operation, but Acosta would not name the company and declined to speak about how the drugs were transported and where they were distributed. He also declined to comment on whether the group had any mob ties.
He noted the arrests were a first step in an ongoing investigation. Most of those charged were homeowners or tenants and officials said there could be other charges coming later against individuals higher up in the organization who recruited them.
Under the agreement, owners had to harvest marijuana crops two to four times a year and would receive $1,000 for each plant they reaped, while the organizers kept the rest of the profit. After two years, they could decide to continue growing marijuana or could sell the house. The homeowners would get 50 percent of the profits from the home sale at that point, he said.
The homes produced between 30 and 300 plants in each harvest and some homes cultivated up to 1,200 plants in a year. Many of the homes were set up identically and paperwork in one house often led investigators to other grow houses within the ring.
The city has filed paperwork to seize 14 homes through forfeiture and Acosta said forfeiture proceedings would continue at the federal level. Most of the charges carry maximum sentences of between 20 and 40 years in prison and one of the charges, possession of 100 or more marijuana plants, carries a five-year mandatory prison sentence, according to prosecutors.
In addition to local detectives, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service are assisting in the investigation.
Since police raided the first home in early May, there have been 82 search warrants leading to 59 alleged grow houses, said Police Chief John Skinner. Investigators have seized 4,000 pounds of marijuana and roughly $167,000 in cash.
While Skinner said he felt police had made a dent in local operations and that grow house discoveries have peaked, he said there still could be more out there. The city's enormous growth may have been a factor in why Port St. Lucie was chosen as a home base.
"It's a new community," Skinner said. "It's an easy place to blend in ... any community can have grow houses. It's not just a Port St. Lucie problem."
Derek Simmonsen can be reached at derek.simmonsen@ scripps.com
The pitch went something like this: Relocate to Port St. Lucie, get free financing on a home in your name and have most of your expenses paid for two years. The catch? You have to agree to spend that time growing, harvesting and packaging marijuana for sale.
What initially started in May as a call to police about a man chasing someone with a machete on Southwest Glenwood Drive has unraveled a highly organized, multi-state marijuana ring that recruited potential candidates with the promise of one day owning the grow houses they ran. Now, the local investigation has branched off into a large-scale federal prosecution that has charged 35 owners and tenants with drug crimes.
"Today, we have effectively dismantled a well-organized and well-financed marijuana grow-house operation with tentacles that stretched from South Florida to New York," R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said Wednesday.
Of the 35 people charged through federal indictments and criminal complaints, 27 were in custody Wednesday, Acosta said. Four are being held in New Jersey and another was in Orlando waiting to be transferred to South Florida; authorities have information on the whereabouts of the eight who have not been arrested.
A business in New Jersey financed the operation, but Acosta would not name the company and declined to speak about how the drugs were transported and where they were distributed. He also declined to comment on whether the group had any mob ties.
He noted the arrests were a first step in an ongoing investigation. Most of those charged were homeowners or tenants and officials said there could be other charges coming later against individuals higher up in the organization who recruited them.
Under the agreement, owners had to harvest marijuana crops two to four times a year and would receive $1,000 for each plant they reaped, while the organizers kept the rest of the profit. After two years, they could decide to continue growing marijuana or could sell the house. The homeowners would get 50 percent of the profits from the home sale at that point, he said.
The homes produced between 30 and 300 plants in each harvest and some homes cultivated up to 1,200 plants in a year. Many of the homes were set up identically and paperwork in one house often led investigators to other grow houses within the ring.
The city has filed paperwork to seize 14 homes through forfeiture and Acosta said forfeiture proceedings would continue at the federal level. Most of the charges carry maximum sentences of between 20 and 40 years in prison and one of the charges, possession of 100 or more marijuana plants, carries a five-year mandatory prison sentence, according to prosecutors.
In addition to local detectives, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service are assisting in the investigation.
Since police raided the first home in early May, there have been 82 search warrants leading to 59 alleged grow houses, said Police Chief John Skinner. Investigators have seized 4,000 pounds of marijuana and roughly $167,000 in cash.
While Skinner said he felt police had made a dent in local operations and that grow house discoveries have peaked, he said there still could be more out there. The city's enormous growth may have been a factor in why Port St. Lucie was chosen as a home base.
"It's a new community," Skinner said. "It's an easy place to blend in ... any community can have grow houses. It's not just a Port St. Lucie problem."
Derek Simmonsen can be reached at derek.simmonsen@ scripps.com
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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