DEA Makes Major Marijuana Bust In Miami

One Raid Targeted Elderly Woman Who Allegedly Ran $300K A Year Pot Operation From Home

(CBS/AP)  Officers fighting networks of indoor marijuana factories took out what they called a major operation Wednesday in a secluded back room of a house where a nice older lady sold ice cream to kids.

The raid targeted a sophisticated pot-growing operation that could net more than $300,000 a year, authorities said. The woman, Juana Betancourt, sat drinking coffee, appearing calmly resigned to the bust, as local police and federal agents carted away the crop. She wouldn't comment.

Bad luck found Betancourt on a quiet suburban street, the kind that often leaves neighbors dumbfounded when officers show up.

Yet it was a case in point in the battle between law enforcement and organized crime syndicates that have moved into the indoor-growing business. Law enforcement officials from Seattle to Miami are grappling with the spread of sophisticated indoor marijuana farms, often run by ethnic gangs, that produce hundreds of pounds each year.

"You can go into any neighborhood, the nicest neighborhood you want, and the person next door could be a marijuana grower," said Mark R. Trouville, special agent in charge of the Miami office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "It really is all about the money. It's phenomenal."

CBS affiliate, WFOR-TV in Miami reports that grow houses like the one busted in Miami are cropping up all over southern Florida.

DEA special agent Anthony Angelli told WFOR-TV they're seeing more and more "grow houses' all across south Florida, and it concerns him.

"It's just flowing all over South Florida. It's easy to put these grows together," said Angelli.

The two dozen plants found at Betancourt's home, each more than 4 feet tall, are known as "mothers" - meant not so much for smoking but as sources of clones for future pot crops. The plants exude an unmistakable strong, sickly sweet smell under bright grow lights and are fed by an irrigation system. Authorities say the electricity used was stolen so the home's power bill didn't tip off investigators.

A neighbor, 42-year-old Anthony Williams, said he was shocked that the older couple across the street had such an operation - especially since they had regularly sold ice cream from a truck, often parked in front of the house - to the neighborhood children.

"That's hard to believe," Williams said, watching along with his son as cops carried bags of marijuana plants out of the house. "They are just two sweet old people. You'd never suspect them."

Betancourt and the home's other occupant, Sixto Campo, each could face up to three years in prison; Campo also declined to comment.

Their arrests are part of a coordinated local and federal law enforcement crackdown on indoor marijuana grow houses.

Last week in Seattle, authorities arrested 15 people and raided two garden shops that were part of a Vietnamese drug trafficking group accused of operating at least 19 marijuana grow houses around Puget Sound.

One San Francisco-based ethnic Chinese drug ring operated at least 50 marijuana grow houses in the Bay area that could produce pot valued on the street at $94 million, authorities claim. Major indoor marijuana rings have also been discovered recently in Atlanta, Houston and New England.

In Florida, such outfits are increasingly operated by Cuban-American crime syndicates. A Cuban-American organization based in Miami is setting up grow houses north in Gainesville, Jacksonville and even into Georgia and the Carolinas.

At a second Miami grow house raided Wednesday, the occupants had constructed two large interior rooms complete with separate air conditioning units. Three dozen plants found there were topped by whitish buds and were nearly ready for their quarterly harvest, when they would bring about $4,000 apiece, or close to $600,000 a year.

The lone unidentified man in the sparsely furnished house was handcuffed and placed in a police car before reporters were allowed in. He didn't resist arrest.

His neighbor, 75-year-old Clement Aday, said the home had been in foreclosure and was purchased about four months ago by people he rarely saw.

"There's going to be a lot more of it, because of the economy," Aday said of the pot crop. "People have to exist one way or another."

[scorpio59er]

I can''t believe it! CBS will not allow the word S-E-X!

[scorpio59er]

Reefer madness continues in 21st century America. And to think that the generation now running the country used to be ***-crazed, drug-crazed hippies. What a bunch of hypocrites!

[jt_lancer]

Criminalization of a plant is among the most destructive government policies. And, believe me, there are many destructive government policies.

The War on Drugs ia a war on the American people.

[jt_lancer]

DEA - keeping dangerous elderly women off the streets! Don''t you feel safer?

[mswolfestock]

I know so many individuals who grow their own pot because it''s cheaper and more convenient than hassling with a dealer. It''s just like growing a vegetable garden with tomatoes, peppers, etc. (It''s cheaper, convenient, and you get a better product.) Most of these individual growers wouldn''t think of dealing their produce - they grow it because they want to get a buzz and save money. There wouldn''t be a need to wipe out organized crime if growing marijuana for personal use was legalized. If everybody could grow their own, why would they pay the higher prices that the dealers sell for. The gangs would have to find another source of cash if we were all growing our own.

[prayer4u2]

Sativex is prescription pot in an inhaler made by the makers of Bayer Aspirin & won%u2019t be made available to the general public until this Administration leaves office to save face. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) administers a contract with the University of Mississippi to grow medical cannabis for research purposes & is the only legal source for medical cannabis/medical marijuana in the United States supplying up to seven patients under single patient so-called ''compassionate use'' Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications. In 1978, as part of a lawsuit settlement by the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIDA began supplying medical marijuana to patients whose physicians applied for & received such an USID from the FDA. In 1992 the Secretary of HHS terminated this practice, but decided NIDA should continue to supply those patients who were receiving medical cannabis at the time. NIDA has overseen the medical marijuana farm since the institute''s inception in 1974. NIDA''s predecessor, National Institutes of Mental Health, founded a drug supply program in 1968 to provide researchers with the compounds necessary to conduct biomedical research and medical marijuana was among the first substances to be made available providing a contamination-free source of medical cannabis material with consistent and predictable potency for biomedical research. HYPOCRISY 101 Federal Government grows it, so much for liberally being a compassionate conservative!

[prayer4u2]

Marinol is prescription pot in a pill & is a joke for those suffering from extremely severe nausea & vomiting while trying to swallow a pill. Robert Randall, a glaucoma patient, who became the 1st individual(1978) granted the legal right to regularly use marijuana medically, co-wrote the following (with his wife Alice O''Leary) description of the halting of the Compassionate IND Program for medical marijuana: "In the early 1990s when FDA was compelled to expand the nation''s Compassionate IND program for medical marijuana for Americans afflicted by neurologic disorders like paralysis, multiple sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy.... federal drug agencies were whipsawed by these accelerating demands for care. DEA steadfastly maintained medical marijuana has no medical value even as FDA authorized marijuana''s compassionate medical use for the treatment of an expanding number of life- & sense-threatening diseases. By April 1991, this profound contradiction in federal policy brought the medical prohibition into crisis. In March 1992, War on Drugs hardliners in the bureaucracy won as Bush Sr. killed FDA''s Compassionate IND program for medical marijuana. FDA dumped hundreds of Compassionate IND applications into the trash and scores of patients were arbitrarily denied promised access to medical care. Only a handful of patients, those already receiving medical marijuana, were spared." HYPOCRISY 101 Federal Government grows it, so much for liberally being a compassionate conservative!

[dmotte]

I grow a few plants at my house for my own use out of some very potent seeds that I acquired from my brother. F-ck the DEA,cops, judges and any other a-shole that doesn,t like it. Let them come to my house and I''ll have a real treat for them.

[prinzowhales]

While the Regime fights American grown hemp producers, they overthrew the Taliban who had come close to ending opium production in Afghanistan and installed an Oil & Narco government in Kabul, redoubling pre-Taliban Opium production--the heroin goes to the Kosovo Liberation Army...an Interpol-named narco-terrorist outfit...that Clinton and friends installed in Kosovo. They distribute the heroin throughout Europe.

That is a real drug war the Regime has going...it lasts for decades and drug use continues unabated.

[prinzowhales]

These kind of operations interfer with the profits of the connected dealers who are hooked into the protected cartels--that is why two Border Patrolmen are in prison today...they shot a smuggler who was "protected" after he tried to run over them. The Cartel''s Federal Prosecutor, a Mr. Sutton, neglected to inform the jury that the smuggler had been caught again importing drugs and the judge abetted him in this travesty. These brave men are in jail today-- where Bush should be...While the Cartel''s enforcement arm/DEA try to drive American competition out of business...just the way they do in manufacturing.

[bobnjersey]

[Decriminalize marijuana now. The vast majority of the public wants this done, and law enforcement works for us not vice versa, so Congress and the President should accept the public will on this. ]
[Posted by razzl at 12:16 PM : May 01, 2008]

don''t hold your breath ... what you think isn''t the least bit an issue for your so called elected representatives.

"after the oregon legislature passed three lawas recriminalizing mj in 1997, a group of activists collected enough signatures to force a public referendum on the issue. the measure to decriminalize mj was oppossed by the states democratic governor and its republican dominated legislature. no major political figure from either party would publicly support decriminalization. nevertheless, the people of oregon voted to overturn the new criminal sanctions for possessing small amounts of mj, defying their own legislators by a margin of two to one".

from: reefer madness by eric schlosser

[bobnjersey]

[Decriminalize marijuana now. The vast majority of the public wants this done, and law enforcement works for us not vice versa, so Congress and the President should accept the public will on this. Unwise restriction only leads to mass civil disobedience, which in the end hampers enforcement of more important laws...]
[Posted by razzl at 12:16 PM : May 01, 2008]

forfeiture laws will be the biggest obstacle to decriminalization. they can now seize any and all assets they claim were either used in the commission of ''the crime'' ... or were obtained as part of the proceeds of the (alleged) criminal activity. no need to actually prove anything ... just take all the stuff (cars, house, boat, money, whatever).

even if charges are dropped you''ll likely never see your stuff again. there are cases where a given individual was found to possess on a boat and they''ll take the boat ... even though the boat wasn''t the property of the one w/ the contraband.

the same entities that decide who gets raided and their property seized are the same ones who reap the rewards ... cause they get a piece of the seized assets ... so they can buy their automatic weapons and other military style wares for their next seizure.

[honestabe8]

F the liquor lobby, F the DEA, F the ONDCP

[honestabe8]

Perhaps it is time for jury nullification

[yongamerica]

It is another embarrassment, started by the Regan administration, for the federal government to spend a sizable amount of the federal budget that end in mainly marijuana arrests. The amount of money wasted per annually by the FBI, ATF, Homeland Security and other agencies and offices, along with the costs of incarceration of nonviolent people involved in the marijuana trade probably equals the amount annually spent by this government on the Afghanistan war.

Just as the legalization of liquor led to a drastic drop of organized crime and a substantial increase in tax revenue, the legalization of marijuana would also be beneficial to this failing economy, the federal budget, the millions of US citizens who risk arrest because they believe in their cause, and the millions of people incarcerated for marijuana. The Legalization issue is a win win situation. Fundamentalist Christian churches and the Liquor lobby should no longer have the political influence to prevent the sensible legalization of marijuana.

[barneefife]

suzieh2308 and razzi, the liquer lobby will never allow recreational drug legalization, even if it''s taxed and regulated. Rent the movie WEED, narr''d by Woody Harrilston and it will give you a prespective along with the obscene taxes We The People pay to fight our governments Drug War

[prayer4u2]

Sativex, prescription pot in an inhaler made by the makers of Bayer Aspirin, won%u2019t be made available to the general public until this Administration leaves office to save face. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) administers a contract with the University of Mississippi to grow medical cannabis for research purposes & is the only %u2018legal%u2019 source for medical cannabis/medical marijuana in the United States supplying up to seven patients under single patient so-called ''compassionate use'' Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications. In 1978, as part of a lawsuit settlement by the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIDA began supplying medical marijuana to patients whose physicians applied for & received such an USID from the FDA. In 1992 the Secretary of HHS terminated this practice, but decided NIDA should continue to supply those patients who were receiving medical cannabis at the time. NIDA has overseen the medical marijuana farm since the institute''s inception in 1974. NIDA''s predecessor, National Institutes of Mental Health, founded a drug supply program in 1968 to provide researchers with the compounds necessary to conduct biomedical research and medical marijuana was among the first substances to be made available providing a contamination-free source of medical cannabis material with consistent and predictable potency for biomedical research. HYPOCRISY 101 Federal Government grows it, so much for liberally being a compassionate conservative!

[prayer4u2]

Marinol, prescription pot in a pill, is a joke for those suffering from extremely severe nausea & vomiting while trying to swallow a pill. Robert Randall, a glaucoma patient, who became the 1st individual(1978) granted the legal right to regularly use marijuana medically, co-wrote the following (with his wife Alice O''Leary) description of the halting of the Compassionate IND Program for medical marijuana: "In the early 1990s when FDA was compelled to expand the nation''s Compassionate IND program for medical marijuana for Americans afflicted by neurologic disorders like paralysis, multiple sclerosis, and muscular dystrophy.... federal drug agencies were whipsawed by these accelerating demands for care. DEA steadfastly maintained medical marijuana has no medical value even as FDA authorized marijuana''s compassionate medical use for the treatment of an expanding number of life- & sense-threatening diseases. By April 1991, this profound contradiction in federal policy brought the medical prohibition into crisis. In March 1992, War on Drugs hardliners in the bureaucracy won as Bush Sr. killed FDA''s Compassionate IND program for medical marijuana. FDA dumped hundreds of Compassionate IND applications into the trash and scores of patients were arbitrarily denied promised access to medical care. Only a handful of patients, those already receiving medical marijuana, were spared." HYPOCRISY 101 Federal Government grows it, so much for liberally being a compassionate conservative!

[reedtaz73]

I think that police agencies across america should open their surplus of confiscated pot and sell it to partakers...use the money to set up a fund for families that lose their husbands/wives in the line of duty.

[prayer4u2]

Sativex, %u2018prescription pot in an inhaler%u2019 made by the makers of Bayer Aspirin, won%u2019t be made available to the general public until this Administration leaves office to save face. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) administers a contract with the University of Mississippi to grow medical cannabis for research purposes & is the only %u2018legal%u2019 source for medical cannabis/medical marijuana in the United States supplying up to seven patients under single patient so-called ''compassionate use'' Investigational New Drug (IND) Applications. In 1978, as part of a lawsuit settlement by the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIDA began supplying medical marijuana to patients whose physicians applied for & received such an USID from the FDA. In 1992 the Secretary of HHS terminated this practice, but decided NIDA should continue to supply those patients who were receiving medical cannabis at the time. NIDA has overseen the medical marijuana farm since the institute''s inception in 1974. NIDA''s predecessor, National Institutes of Mental Health, founded a drug supply program in 1968 to provide researchers with the compounds necessary to conduct biomedical research and medical marijuana was among the first substances to be made available providing a contamination-free source of medical cannabis material with consistent and predictable potency for biomedical research. HYPOCRISY 101 Federal Government grows it, so much for liberally being a compassionate conservative!