Posted on 09/23/2006 1:23:52 PM PDT by World_Events
Leon Nunn stepped out his front door one recent afternoon only to be waved back by a squadron of drug agents using a battering ram on a neighbor's home.
The half-million dollar home in the quiet subdivision was stuffed with high-grade marijuana, plants covering nearly every square foot.
The bust is one example of a phenomenon that has come to light recently in subdivisions around the state's capital.
Marijuana growers with suspected ties to Asian organized crime have been buying suburban homes — many in newer developments — because of the anonymity the drug dealers believe the neighborhoods afford.
They close the blinds and get to work gutting the inside, converting otherwise nondescript tract homes into the latest battleground in the state's campaign against marijuana cartels.
"We had no idea. I was shocked," said Nunn, an associate minister at Elk Grove's Progressive Church of God in Christ. "We never saw them or heard from them. It was just a real quiet house on the block."
The Nunns installed security lights and cameras and said some of their neighbors are talking of moving away.
"Now we're just suspicious every time we see something around here," said his wife, Patricia. "You pay this much money, you don't expect those things to happen."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I guess it is easier than trying to transport it across the borders.
Gotta put those local drug growers out of business fast. They may cut in on the lucrative import business. On the other hand they may only get ten percent of the locals the same as they do the "importers."
Asian organized crime must learn that the cops watch your electric bills, especially when you use credit cards to buy HMI lights and tanks of CO2.
The electricity meter is bypassed for the growing operation, leaving a normal electric bill... The neighborhoods are all new, with no established long time residents. The front areas of the houses are set up normally, with the growing operations in the rear of the houses. Unless you have seen the news stories, you wouldn't believe how sophisticated they are.
I just gotta wonder how many buds are missing at the end of the day.
END THE DRUG WAR NOW!
The drug warriors will be along shortly to demand warrant-less inspections of all homes in the subdivisions. It's the only way to be sure. Since anyone with nothing to hide should just open their doors. Saves the inconvenience of a forced entry.
If these guys make a market move on the tender baby spinach market; the FDA will be all over it.
"END THE DRUG WAR NOW!"
Exactly! End the drug war by winning...right now. Stop playing games with it and execute every second (or more) offender caught with more than a "user level" amount in their possession. Amend the Constitution to limit court appeals to one level/one appeal, and then when the case is lost, execute the offender the following day.
For those who are caught with less, no prison. Cane them, or whip them...and let them pick their choice of the two.
Except, the house looks like a christmass tree on Infrared - cops just fly the helos over and look for the heat bloom.
Somehow the words "half-million dollar" and "nondescript tract homes" just don't seem to go together for me. I guess I don't get out enough.
In my own experience, few people on earth are as obsessed about grass as your typical upscale suburban homeowner, so it appears to be a natural fit.
WOD - the Great Circle Jerk continues
Yes. It is.
Execute them in soccer stadiums! Stone them all!
I like the way you think.
In Calif that will probably get you a 3 bedroom 1 bath 1800 sq ft with a one car garage.
It's the SF Bay area. $500k is VERY common. It is NOT high end.
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