Pot-Growing Takes Root in the Suburbs

This undated photo released by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department shows marijuana plants discovered growing in a home in Newton County, Ga. Around the country, investigators are increasingly seeing suburban homes in middle-class and well-to-do neighborhoods turned into indoor marijuana farms. Typically investigators find an empty home, save a mattress, a couple of chairs, some snacks in the fridge and an elaborate setup of soil-free growing trays. (AP Photo/Fayette County Sheriff's Department) (AP)

Nearly all of the grow houses busted in Georgia were connected, police say. Fayetteville resident Merquiades Martinez _ a Cuban immigrant _ and his wife, a real estate agent, are accused of recruiting other Cubans to buy homes that cost $300,000 to $450,000.

Investigators employed tips, surveillance and information from the power company on electricity usage to find the Coldwater Creek home and the other Georgia grow houses, most of which were said to be operating for about two years.

It was a string of electrical fires that led New Hampshire authorities to more than dozen grow houses in December. (Marijuana grow houses often have rows of power strips and spaghetti clusters of extension cords and other power lines.)

"They are very sophisticated, probably the highest quality of marijuana we've seen in years," said Lt. Terry Kinneen, commander of the New Hampshire State Police narcotics unit.

In another elaborate scheme, more than 50 houses with thousands of plants recently found in Florida were traced to marijuana financiers in New Jersey who offered "relocation packages," with 100 percent financing for the homes. Buyers would agree to operate a grow house for two years, after which they could sell the house and split the profits with their backers, or keep growing pot.

The big advantage of such operations is the privacy that comes with being in a community full of people so busy working and raising their families that they don't know the neighbors well and pay little attention to what is going on next door.

When Tom Paige met a woman living three doors down last summer, she told him that she and her husband wouldn't be around much.

"As I remember, they had some kind of boat business in Florida and they were splitting time between here and there. I didn't think anything of it," said Paige, president of the homeowners association in Waterford Place, another Lawrenceville neighborhood where a grow house was found.

A few months later, the couple put up a for-sale sign.

"They were taking care of the house and taking care of the yard," said Paige, a security contractor trained to notice suspicious activity. "As we found out later, they were taking care of other things."