Police crack down on pot houses in Seattle

Jul 05,2007 00:00 by UPI

SEATTLE -- The White House's anti-drug office reports more than 100 large-scale marijuana grow houses have been raided in Seattle since 2005.

The raids, including one last month where 1,500 plants were found in a single house, have led to the destruction of more than 41,000 marijuana plants, The Seattle Times reported Thursday.

Police in Everett, Wash., are also investigating a double homicide in which 400 marijuana plants were found in a home with two bodies Monday.

A large number of the raids spawned from an 18-month investigation into garden-supply store Kent Distributor. The investigation led police to numerous grow houses managed by only a handful of people, said the Times.

Federal documents said Kent Distributor was a one-stop shop for those looking to grow marijuana, offering a wide variety of growing supplied, including seedlings and grow lights on credit. They also allegedly introduced growers to a real-estate agent who could helped them buy homes to grow the plants in with no down payment.