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Did you guys see that on the news tonight? Big WEED BUST. 30 houses in one neighborhood in Florida :(
The people that bought the homes were involved in growing and maintaining the plants and then they could sell the home in 2 years and get out with profit. So it sounds like the dealer got off and all the growers got busted.
They said that a mature plant is worth $4,000 and that they could grow up to 1,200 plants per year in the house. I guess I never grew a mature plant :stoned:
It's probably just that those were PROFESSIONAL growers, that and they probably grew the plants very, very tall to get more yield.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pass That Shit
All in all, that sorta sucks. They got the serfs, but left the tyrant.
no they didnt the cops are fuckn liars
Yes, this happened in my area. 2 months of busts.
Quote:
PORT ST. LUCIE â?? It was the promise of the American dream â?? homeownership on the cheap â?? that brought them to Florida and one of America's fastest-growing cities.
The pitch went something like this: relocate to Port St. Lucie, get free financing on a home in your name and have most of your expenses paid for two years. The catch? You have to agree to spend that time growing, harvesting and packaging marijuana for sale.
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What initially started in May as a call to police about a man chasing someone with a machete on Southwest Glenwood Drive has unraveled a highly-organized, multi-state marijuana ring that recruited potential candidates with the promise of one day owning the grow houses they ran. Now, the local investigation has branched off into a large-scale federal prosecution that has charged 35 owners and tenants with various drug crimes.
"Today, we have effectively dismantled a well-organized and well financed marijuana grow house operation with tentacles that stretched from South Florida to New York," said R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, as he revealed information Wednesday about the ring and the charges.
Thirty five people were charged through federal indictments and criminal complaints and 27 of them were in custody Wednesday, Acosta said. Four are being held in New Jersey and another was in Orlando waiting to be transferred to South Florida; authorities have information on the whereabouts of the eight who have not been arrested.
A business in New Jersey financed the operation, but Acosta would not name the company and declined to speak about how the drugs were transported and where they were distributed. He also declined to comment on whether the group had any mob ties.
He described the arrests as a "substantial" hit, but also noted it was a first step in an ongoing investigation. Most of those charged were homeowners or tenants and officials said there could be other charges coming later against individuals higher up in the organization who recruited them.
Under the agreement, owners had to harvest marijuana crops two to four times a year and would receive $1,000 for each plant they reaped, while the organizers kept the rest of the profit. After two years, they could decide to continue growing marijuana or could sell the house. The homeowners would get 50 percent of the profits from the home sale at that point, he said.
The homes produced between 30 to 300 plants in each harvest and some homes cultivated up to 1,200 plants in a year. Many of the homes were set up identically and paperwork in one house often led investigators to other grow houses within the ring.
The city has filed paperwork to seize 14 homes through forfeiture and Acosta said forfeiture proceedings would continue at the federal level. Most of the charges carry maximum sentences between 20 and 40 years in prison and one of the charges, possession of 100 or more marijuana plants, carries a five-year mandatory prison sentence, according to prosecutors.
In addition to local detectives, members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service are assisting in the investigation.
Since police raided the first home in early May, there have been 82 search warrants executed, leading to 59 alleged grow houses and 62 arrests, said Police Chief John Skinner. Investigators have seized 4,000 pounds of marijuana and roughly $167,000 in cash.
While Skinner said he felt police had made a dent in local operations and that grow house discoveries have "peaked," he said there still could be more out there. The city's enormous growth may have been a factor in why Port St. Lucie was chosen as a home base.
"It's a new community," Skinner said. "It's an easy place to blend in ... any community can have grow houses. It's not just a Port St. Lucie problem."
Skinner said many of those arrested were friendly and cooperated with detectives.
"They know they were wrong," he said. "They were looking for part of the American dream, but they took a shortcut."
HOW THE MARIJUANA GROW HOUSE RING WORKED
â?¢ The grow houses were financed by a New Jersey business in which people were offered a chance to "relocate" to Port St. Lucie. They would receive homes, with most of their expenses paid, in exchange for spending two years farming marijuana.
â?¢ At the end of that period, they could either continue to grow marijuana or sell the home and receive half of the profits from the sale.
Homes typically harvested plants two to four times per year and most harvests had been 30 and 300 plants.
When the police bust somewhere and give the papers and news an amount of money that the plants were worth its not true.
It's infact, complete and utter super bullshit.
They dont weigh just the plants, they wieght the plants, the pots, the soil, the lights, the fucking house... everything.
silly poposQuote:
Originally Posted by LIP
As a matter of fact this story was on NPR and they had shirts for sale over there stating "Come Grow With Us: Pot St. Lucie"
That was great...
Also I just heard this story on my local news...some grower got busted with 25 plants in his house....and they showed them and they looked all undernourished and weren't even sexing and they said..."at 2lbs per plant...the homeowners may be charged with posessing 50lbs of marijuana."
Ridiculous reporting...I blame cops AND reporters for not being informed...or for simply being fuckin assholes.
The plants weigh a lot less when they are dried out, they must have just weighed the plants and not have realized there was such a loss of weight after you manicure the buds and dry them.
It always kills me inside when i hear about a bust :(
Another sad day! When will those lil piggies learn, the more you bust people for growing the more people will grow!
Peacde
Buddy
they shouldnt exageerate on prices either...$1400 per plant?...sounds like the cops want me to grow it...
I would love for a decent journalist in a big name newspaper to put them all in there place and post the truth about how they actually grew.
No gonna happen but still would be nice.
Why was i never informed? I would learn to grow in order to get a house, isn't that just killing two birds with one stone?