Marijuana growers move indoors for prodigious profits

                      When Palm Beach County sheriff’s narcotics agents began looking into
                      an indoor marijuana-growing operation last fall, they had no idea the
                      case would lead to one of the largest rings taken down in recent years.

                      As they investigated, the case got bigger and bigger, surprising even
                      seasoned agents with its sophistication, high-quality product and
                      mind-boggling profits. Federal prosecutors now calculate the loose-knit
                      ring, which had been in operation since at least 1995, pulled in $8
                      million by growing potent strains of pot.

                      Narcotics agents say the ring members were part of a new breed of 
                      marijuana growers. No longer are they cultivating large fields outdoors,
                      where law enforcement helicopters buzz overhead, insects eat their fill,
                      thieves help themselves, and Mother Nature provides less than ideal 
                      growing conditions.

                      Instead, they went indoors, using exacting methods to control the crop
                      and maximize their return. By following a formula, agents say, the Palm
                      Beach County growers — who operated in cells allegedly set up by
                      ringleaders — were guaranteed success.

                      “They had gotten it down to the McDonald’s science of it. They would go
                      in, set up a house, and move on to the next,” said Palm Beach Sheriff’s
                      Agent Richard McAfee. “They knew what worked and what didn’t. So
                      long as you followed their ingredients, you were growing some
                      phenomenal dope.”

                      South Florida drug agents say they started seeing an increase in the
                      number of indoor marijuana operations in the early 1990s. One reason:
                      The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Florida Department of
                      Law Enforcement and local agencies had been steadily busting more
                      outdoor growers for more than a decade.

                      And there was another reason the popularity of outdoor growing
                      diminished: rapid development to the west.

                      “When you take off in a plane from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, you are
                      looking at a concrete jungle,” said FDLE Agent Rick Ward. “The land is all
                      taken out, and you’ve pushed them indoors.”

                      Marijuana growers also learned they could better hide their crops
                      indoors and get a stronger product that fetched far more money than
                      that grown outdoors.

                      “You can grow a better product indoors,” said Broward County sheriff’s
                      narcotics Sgt. Joe Damiano. “You have fewer pests to worry about,
                      including law enforcement.”

                      The growers often choose homes that are in isolated areas. But agents
                      say they also have found grow houses in cramped apartments. The
                      homes can be totally dedicated to the operation, with nearly every room
                      put to use, but more often the garage or master bedroom is converted
                      into the grow room.

                      The growers do what it takes to avoid attracting attention.

                      “They fit in with mainstream society,” Damiano said. “They mow their
                      lawns. They will come home at dinner time, to make sure the neighbors
                      see them.”

                      One grow house in the historic Roads neighborhood in Miami was more
                      than unusual. Police, acting on a tip about a funny odor coming from the
                      two-story duplex, tried to question a man who came out of the house in
                      January. He pushed an officer, ran back inside and disappeared.

                      Police found 120 marijuana plants nourished by an elaborate
                      hydroponics growing system — and a maze of shallow underground
                      tunnels. The suspect got away but was arrested two weeks later.

                      Numbers mixed

                      Miami DEA spokesman Joe Kilmer said the number of arrests for indoor
                      growing has gone up in recent years.

                      “We are simply seeing a great deal more of them. There is a pretty
                      steady increase of them since the late 1990s,” he said. “It is an
                      extremely lucrative venture.”

                      The number of outdoor marijuana plants eradicated last year was the
                      lowest in the two decades the FDLE has been keeping records. There
                      were 210 indoor operations busted, compared with 341 outdoor sites,
                      according to the FDLE, with a total of 28,206 plants destroyed.

                      FDLE statistics don’t show a decisive trend in the number of indoor
                      busts in the last 10 years. In 1989, there were eight. Three years later
                      set the record that still stands, with 247 sites discovered. There have
                      been about 200 indoor operations taken down in each of the past three
                      years.

                      But FDLE records show that virtually all of the arrests in South Florida
                      last year came from indoor operations. Miami-Dade County led the state
                      with 2,503 plants confiscated, and 49 of the 51 operations were
                      indoors. Broward County’s four operations uncovered were all indoors.
                      In Palm Beach County, only one of the 11 operations discovered was
                      outdoors.

                      Palm Beach County has seen a spate of indoor operations this year,
                      according to McAfee. “Right now off the top of my head, I can think of 10
                      that we have done this year,” he said.

                      Potency increases

                      There is a saying among narcotics agents.

                      “I’ve heard this over and over — ‘This is not the pot your daddy and
                      momma had.’ It’s a more dangerous drug than was out there in the
                      ’60s,” said the FDLE’s Ward. “This is a more refined, higher-grade
                      marijuana with higher THC levels.”

                      Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the psychoactive component of
                      marijuana that produces the “high.” The greater the level of THC, the
                      more growers can charge for their crops on the street. Compared with
                      ordinary marijuana grown outdoors or pot imported from Mexico, which
                      fetches a few hundred dollars a pound, indoor marijuana can bring
                      thousands of dollars a pound.

                      “It is a science to them. They will spend months and months reading
                      material. It’s also practice to get the perfect plant. It becomes art,” said
                      Damiano of the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

                      Growers control the amount of light and nutrients given to the plants.
                      They control the temperature. As a result, they have sped up the
                      growth cycle so they can get four harvests a year, which means more
                      profits compared with annual outdoor harvests.

                      “People who went away [to prison] for years for cultivating, they came
                      back and are caught again indoors,” Ward said. “You ask them why,
                      and they say, ‘I can create a better product.’”

                      In years past, THC levels were in the 2 percent to 3 percent range.
                      Ward said today’s indoor marijuana can reach THC levels of 7 percent to
                      10 percent.

                      Buried fortunes

                      The Palm Beach County growers busted this spring were producing such
                      a refined product that it sold for $3,500 to $5,000 per pound,
                      depending on the skills of the particular grower, agents say.

                      The ringleaders allegedly presided over 13 grow houses scattered in
                      isolated areas in the northern part of the county, according to federal
                      court records. Prosecutors estimate each grow house could generate
                      $400,000 a year.

                      One woman arrested with a grow room sectioned off in a barn told
                      agents she made $1.5 million in 18 months, according to records,
                      although prosecutors haven’t been able to find that money. She told
                      agents she paid for a child’s college tuition and bought a
                      Harley-Davidson and a Dodge pickup with her profits. Agents are
                      seeking to have those forfeited.

                      Prosecutors were so concerned she would use her hidden profits to flee
                      that they recently went into court and got a federal magistrate to
                      revoke her bond.

                      “It’s unusual for these types of cases,” said U.S. Magistrate Judge
                      Linnea Johnson, remarking on how the case had expanded.

                      The accused ringleaders hadn’t held legitimate jobs in a decade,
                      according to drug agents, who think their income came solely from
                      growing marijuana. They bought property, a boat and houses with their
                      money, agents say, adding they were so proficient that their pot sold at
                      premium prices.

                      “Their pot was fetching $5,000 a pound. They were in it so long, it was
                      just good, good quality,” McAfee said.

                      In their back yards, agents dug up $2.2 million buried in taped-up
                      Tupperware containers. They seized tens of thousands of dollars at
                      other grow houses.

                      “Nobody knew what we were getting into in the beginning of this,”
                      McAfee said. “They’re making so much money. You would never expect
                      something like this in a grow case.”

                      Peter Franceschina can be reached at pfranceschina@sun-sentinel.com