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Sheriff's Grow House Crackdown Bears Fruit

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 8, 2008

TAMPA - Detective Ronnie Cooper walked around a sheriff's office conference room Thursday, pointing at light bulbs as long as his forearm and marijuana plants as high as his waist.

"This is from the grow house we took down last night," he said of a plastic vat attached to tubes where a timer circulated water using a submersible pump. Elsewhere in the room were stacks of electrical ballasts, fans and air-filtering equipment. "You almost have to be an electrician to figure this out."

An extensive investigation by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has dismantled about 65 marijuana grow houses in Hillsborough and Manatee counties since February, Sheriff David Gee said Thursday. He released addresses of dozens of locations Thursday; others remain under investigation.

Investigators seized about 5,800 plants and about 3,200 pounds of marijuana from houses stretching from Tampa to Thonotosassa during "Operation Indoor Outlaws."

The amount of drugs at each location, like the houses, ranged from modest to expansive. A $345,000 house in Odessa owned by Patrick Early, 32, for instance, contained 72 pounds of marijuana, investigators said. A $140,000 Tampa house owned by Amaury Gonzalez, 45, contained 33 marijuana plants, detectives said. Both homeowners are charged with felony marijuana trafficking, among other charges.

About 70 people have been arrested since February, Gee said. Some are cooperating with law enforcement, he said.

More arrests are expected, Gee said.

"This is absolutely the tip of the iceberg," Gee said. "Most of the communities we went to didn't have any idea this was going on."

Some of the houses involved appear to be part of a drug ring, which remains under investigation, U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill said Thursday. "Many of these grow houses appear to be related and run by the same organization," he said.

Public records show four people netted in the probe pleaded guilty in federal court last month to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. They are David Wayne Grubbs, 31, of Valrico; Jose Ivan Calderon-Lopez, 29, of Tampa; James Shepherd Jr., 27, of Tampa; and Linuall Woodall Jr., 26, of Brandon. All are scheduled to be sentenced next month.

The domestically grown marijuana has a higher tetrahydrocannabinol content than marijuana sold on the street 10 years ago, Gee said. THC is the main active ingredient in marijuana plants.

"It's a very strong drug, not like the marijuana of the '70s and '80s," Gee said.

In addition to exposing neighbors to the dangers of the drug trade, growers burden the community by making the houses nearly uninhabitable because of the black mold nurtured by the growing environment's heat and humidity, and by stealing electricity, Gee said.

He estimated the growers used more than $1 million in stolen electricity by tapping into Tampa Electric Co. lines to power 1,000-watt light bulbs for the plants.

Cooper, the detective, said growers use about a dozen bulbs per room, timed to run about 12 hours or longer for different stages of growth.

Detectives advised neighbors to watch for grow houses in their area by noticing residents who have multiple air conditioners, lots of activity at night, windows covered with shades or curtains and little garbage.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin

@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Grow House, to see a map pinpointing addresses in Hillsborough County investigated by the sheriff's office.

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