California, Stockton

[Midnight toker]

Article published Sep 29, 2006

Discovery of pot houses shakes north Stockton

The Stockton Record

<table class=posttable align=right width=260><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=260 src=bin/stockton-bust_house.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>A home on Hennessey Street in Spanos Park West sits boarded up after it was found to contain an indoor marijuana growing operation.</td></tr></table>STOCKTON - The discovery of 20 sophisticated indoor marijuana gardens in four- and five-bedroom homes in north Stockton and Weston Ranch neighborhoods this month has sent a ripple through the affected communities.

Three weeks ago, the marijuana operations continued unnoticed behind blocked-out windows that shielded bright grow lights. Then police SWAT teams began battering down the front doors and revealing complex electrical, ventilation and watering systems feeding up to 500 plants a home, about 6,000 plants total.

Now the busted-down doors are blocked with painted plywood and posted with city notices to the houses' residents that they vacate them until building code violations can be fixed.

A 74-year-old resident near 3205 Tenaya Lane, where a house was raided last Friday, said that discovery has changed the way he looks at his neighborhood.

The man did not want to give his name out of fear. He said the boarded-up homes are a reminder of a sinking neighborhood.

A 44-year-old mother on Beards-ley Lane, where the first home was raided Sept. 13, said she's scared for her family.

Police were responding to a tip when they raided the first home, near that woman's house. Surveillance of four men arrested there that night led to arrests and a second raid in the area.

Tips and investigative leads led police to 18 other homes over two weeks with identical operations, Stockton police Officer Pete Smith said.

The operations are believed to be connected to similar discoveries last month in Sacramento and Elk Grove.

Four San Francisco men arrested in the first raid appeared briefly in San Joaquin County Superior Court on Thursday in an arraignment hearing that was continued to 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 12.

<table class=posttable align=left width=260><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg src=bin/stockton-bust_arraignment.jpg width=260></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap>Four men arrested Sept. 13 in the first of several raids of houses where marijuana was being grown appeared Thursday in court. From left are Terry Lee Tong, Zhi Huo Xue, Jiapei Zhou and Hong Bi Zeng.</td></tr></table>The four men - Terry Lee Tong, 24, Zhi Huo Xue, 25, Jiapei Zhou, 21 and Hong Bi Zeng, 21 - each face 21 felony counts for cultivation of marijuana and utilities theft in seven of the 20 homes raided. Prosecutors said convictions on the charges could carry 10-year prison sentences and that more charges may be added.

The men appeared younger than their 20-odd years as they inclined their heads toward their Cantonese Chinese interpreter in court and communicated through him, without expression and almost inaudibly.

While some residents near so-called pot houses were left feeling differently about their neighborhood, others were not.

"The boards are a little tacky," said Brent Ross, 34, of the plywood covering doors and windows at the pot houses. He said that discovery of the homes hasn't changed his feeling about his neighborhood. He lives a few doors down from the 10226 Noyo Lane house that was raided last week.

Ross said residents are likely to pressure the homeowners association to take care of the yard or otherwise pitch in themselves to keep the boarded-up house from becoming too dark a blemish on the neighborhood.

Still, Ross admitted, nobody wants a boarded-up home on his block.

In the week since the last raids, police have checked out 20 more tips and have not found more pot houses, Stockton police Capt. Troy Broddrick said. Police are continuing to respond to tips, he said.

The boards on the raided homes are a safety precaution, Smith said. Police have received reports of people trying to enter the homes, perhaps out of curiosity.

The houses have not been seized and still belong to their listed owners, Smith said. So far, none have come forward to repair the homes that were damaged by the growing operations and then by the police raid.

Neighbors said they hope the owners will miss their payments - all were fully financed - and that the banks will take over the homes and sell them soon.
Contact reporter Ellen Thompson at (209) 546-8279 or ethompson@recordnet.com

[Midnight toker]

Article published Sep 30, 2006

Marijuana houses to be part of federal probe

The Stockton Record

<table class=posttable align=right width=100><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=100 src=bin/stockton-bust_zeng.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap align=center>Hong Bi Zeng, 21</td></tr></table>STOCKTON - A score of indoor marijuana-growing operations uncovered this month in successive raids in several typically peaceful residential areas will become part of a larger federal probe in the region.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento on Thursday handed down indictments on four San Francisco men arrested Sept. 13 in the first of the raids in Stockton, said Gordon Taylor, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency assistant special agent in charge.

<table class=posttable align=left width=100><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=100 src=bin/stockton-bust_zhou.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap align=center>Jiapei Zhou, 21</td></tr></table>Federal prosecution is already under way in what investigators say is a related operation involving 21 houses in Sacramento and Elk Grove that also led to four arrests.

Thursday's indictments formalize the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's role in Stockton. Agents have been assisting Stockton police for two weeks, Taylor said.

"This is without a doubt the most sophisticated criminal syndicate that we have ever investigated in this region," Taylor said, referring to the DEA's Eastern California District, extending from Bakersfield to the state's northern border, excluding counties along the coast. "This is going to take months to wrap our arms around."

If convicted on federal charges of growing more than 1,000 marijuana plants, the four men arrested in Stockton could face 10 years to life in prison, Taylor said.

Terry Lee Tong, 24, Zhi Huo Xue, 25, Jiapei Zhou, 21, and Hong Bi Zeng, 21, were scheduled to be arraigned in San Joaquin County Superior Court this week, each on 21 counts of felony marijuana cultivation and utility theft. A conviction on those charges would have carried a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. That hearing was continued to next week before the U.S. Attorney's Office decided to prosecute the case.

<table class=posttable align=right width=100><td><tr class=postcell><img class=postimg width=100 src=bin/stockton-bust_tong.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap align=center>Terry Lee Tong, 24</td></tr></table>"We're moving forward under the concept that all 41 indoor groves are tied to the same organization with perhaps several different operating cells," Taylor said.

Licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco were one likely market for the marijuana grown in the area, Taylor said.

At least 6,000 plants were seized in Stockton, along with 200 pounds of dried marijuana. A similar number of plants were found in Elk Grove and Sacramento in raids that began last month.

Stockton police Officer Pete Smith said the so-called pot houses set a record for large busts after the first night, when two homes were raided. Over two weeks, neighbors' tips and investigative leads led to 18 more.

<table class=posttable align=left width=100><tr><td class=postcell><img class=postimg width=100 src=bin/stockton-bust_xue.jpg></td></tr><tr><td class=postcap align=center>Zhi Hou Xue, 25</td></tr></table>Past large drug stings in recent years have netted as much as 22 pounds of cocaine and 27 pounds of methamphetamine.

Tom Emery, 50, lives down the block from one raided Spanos Park West home.

He said this week he's not surprised that most residents knew nothing of what was going on inside the homes.

"Everyone's too busy," he said of his neighbors, many of whom are commuters. "I guess that's why they picked these types of neighborhoods."

Contact reporter Ellen Thompson at (209) 546-8279 or ethompson@recordnet.com