75A - PH - MEDICAL MARIJUANA - PROHIBIT

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Estrada watched on Jan. 12 as federal drug agents busted into the unoccupied, stucco-clad house, hauling out enough marijuana plants to fill a truck, along with high-intensity lights, fans and other indoor hydroponics growing equipment. Agents that day raided five other houses nearby in Lathrop and one in Tracy, both suburban cities full of commuters to San Francisco Bay Area jobs. In August and September, 41 houses were busted in Elk Grove, Sacramento and Stockton. Gordon Taylor, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent in Sacramento, says investigators believe the houses are linked to an organized crime syndicate based in San Francisco's Chinatown. Taylor says. "Our theory is they're picking newer neighborhoods because of the relative anonymity.......The prevalence of illegal marijuana cultivation in California -more plants are seized in the state annually than in any other - is due partly to "medical marijuana laws that have created a permissive attitude," Taylor says. "Couple that with the fast profits that can be made and relatively tax penalties a person faces under California marijuana laws, and you're more or less inviting organized crime to enter the industry." Indoor pot seizures in California have skyrocketed, according to DEA figures, from 54,569 in 2004 to 196,000 last year, although it's unclear whether tougher enforcement or more growers is the reason. The 1~'orthern California suburban busts since August have netted 23,602 plants with an estimated X94 million street value, the DEA says.... What is new is the size and sheer audacity found in the suburbs. The operations followed a similar pattern....Growers paid up to $750,000 for houses in new subdivisions, usually obtaining 100% financing and putting no money down. They gutted interiors and used every inch to grow pot, knocking down some walls and cutting holes in others to run water lines and ducts. They installed irrigation systems with timing devices and brought in water tanks, pumps, generators and power packs. They built scaffolding to raise plants 2 feet off the floor. To avoid suspicion from large power usage, growers bypassed a utility's electric meters and created their own circuit boxes. No one lived in the houses. After neighbors tipped off police last summer that garbage cans weren't being taken to the street on trash day, the growers started putting the cans out. They also hired gardeners to cut the lawn......Feelings are mixed over whether their neighborhoods are now safe. "It still seems like a .nice neighborhood," says Richard Johnson, who moved here a month ago. "lt happened, they're gone, so hopeful y it won`t happen again." Samantha Malone says she's moving. "I have babies. I don't want to be around that," she says. "Who's to say it's all taken care of anyway, or it's not going to happen next month." Source: http:/;www.policeone.com/drug-inierdiciion-narcotics/articles/1210)241 3 men found in marijuana cultivation house arrested By The Associated Press SOUTH LAKE TAHO)/ -- Three men were arrested after marijuana with a street value of more than X800,000 was found at a South Lake Tahoe rental home...Acting on a lip by a property management company, police found about 200 plants and 10 pounds of dried marijuana Thursday.....Debettencourt was on federal probation after a conviction for growing marijuana in at least four residences in Sonoma County, South Lake Tahoe police said. 7 75A-102