$4.5 million pot bust in foreclosed house

A bank employee inspecting a foreclosed house in Fontana stumbled upon a thriving business: more than 2,000 mature marijuana plants, part of a drug bust valued at $4.5 million.

From The Sun of San Bernardino: "Angel Wayhang Kou, 30, of Rancho Cucamonga was booked into jail on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, maintaining a residence for drugs, theft of utilities and conspiracy. ... Police began investigating the case Thursday when the bank employee inspecting a foreclosed house in the 14500 block of Mammoth Place found pot plants inside."

More: "Narcotics officers seized more than 2,000 mature marijuana plants. Evidence there led police to another house used to grow marijuana in the 6200 block of Long Cove in Fontana, where officers found 500 mature plants and 150 harvested buds weighing more than 150 pounds."

Police estimated the total street value of the drugs seized at $4.5 million and described a sophisticated and expensive growing system inside the foreclosed home, consisting of hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: An unrelated drug bust in Florida via AP

Comments

[Andrew]

150 buds weighing 150 pounds. Those are some NUGS

[left of lefty]

looks like the san bernardino housing market is really going up in smoke...

[edzo]

Mr russert you must be high, it says the 150 buds weighed 150 pounds not the entire bust of 2500 plants were 150 pounds

[Lynnette]

How scary is it to be inspecting foreclosed houses as a bank employee? I would be terrified not just of multi-million dollar ak-47 wielding drug dealers, but the regular small-time criminals just squatting.

[Tnomrev]

They always inflate the numbers, it makes them look good. Haven't you ever noticed that?

[G]

(Angel Wayhang Kou in jail) MEMO TO SELF: "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER FORGET TO PAY HOUSE BILL!!!!!"

[dudeman]

i agree with tim russert. 4.5 million for 150 pounds, would work out to around $230 dollars an 8th, making it the most expensive weed ive ever heard of.

[T Stewart]

Reminds me of a local bust where they said the plants were 7 foot tall. Showed them with a 9 foot cop! They came up to his chest.

[mblevins]

'the most expensive pot that I have ever heard of cost $5000 a lb. Now multiply that number by 150 and you will see that this bust could not have been worth anywhere near $4.5 million. It also didn't look very good in the pictures. I would say at best this bust was worth $250,000 . . . a far cry from $4.5 million'.....................

You're only counting the 150 buds that were ready for sale, not the 2000 mature plants at one home and the 500 at the other. I Have no idea how much pot you get from one plant, but I imagine thats how they arrive at those numbers

[Jack]

Hmmm, suddenly I have a case of the munchies.

[tapgary@gmail.com]

We have to remember that pot bust dollar amounts
are always inflated to the price Cops and Politicians
have to pay their dealers. After all, those officials
could be busted for a variety of things, then turn you
in to get a plea bargain. Risk always has it's price.

[Nick]

I wish I was the bank employee that found it. There would of only been the remnants of a large drug operation and I would be enjoying my retirement.

[texas joe]

"the most expensive pot that I have ever heard of cost $5000 a lb. Now multiply that number by 150 and you will see that this bust could not have been worth anywhere near $4.5 million. It also didn't look very good in the pictures. I would say at best this bust was worth $250,000 . . . a far cry from $4.5 million

Posted by: tim russert | May 06, 2008 at 04:09 PM "

Tim, I swear you're retarded, this is elementary. The 2,000 plants were only part of the drug bust, there were two locations that had pot plants for a total of 2,500 plants. Also, read the photo credit at the bottom, there you will find that the photo is not even related to this particular bust.

TJ

[claspur]

Wasted product, and no tax revenue...think about that Californians.....*sigh

[tedson]

If they legalized pot they could collect tax revenue and get rid of a major source of income for gangs.

[peter m]

Is it not surprizing that we hear about these big pot busts inside big Mcmansions in the outer exurbs of LA and the IE? There have been qiute a few recenty in areas such as city of industry diamond bar, hacienda hts, SGab valley, walnut, rowland hts, as well as out in the IE. . Not to mention big busts of pot farms in the local mts. Is greater LA basin becoming a third world corrupt region like Mexico/ tijuana , with local/ imported drug cartels, city street drug runners, large- scale marijuana growing operations?. Or is this just a commonplace occurrance for a large mostly third world ghettoized city like LA , which after all is the
focus and world leader of so many illegal imported or home grown criminal syndicate operations.

[jja_American]

Those were some funny posts..The money the USA Gov. pisses away on these programs is unReal..stay green, go green..

[Bulletinman]

Free the weed...Now we know what we can do with all the foreclosed homes. Legalize it!

[Terpin Greely]

Oh...my!
Those pointy green leaves sure look dangerous, don't they? Someone call the Department of Homeland Security.

[Jason]

"the most expensive pot that I have ever heard of cost $5000 a lb. Now multiply that number by 150 and you will see that this bust could not have been worth anywhere near $4.5 million. It also didn't look very good in the pictures. I would say at best this bust was worth $250,000 . . . a far cry from $4.5 million"

^ In response to this:

There was 150 lbs of mature bud at the second location. The $4.5m value applied to all plants at both locations and bud.

[Arnold S.]

Yet another footnote in the Bush adminstration's scheme to pump an economy by stimulation/deregulation. Mortgage companies providing ARMs to just about anyone created this situation in the western cities. In Seattle, they can't keep up with such houses. Translators are needed to talk to the occupants/pawns. Heard a good story on the whole thing on NPR some months ago. Googling reveals:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=16628918

[Ruggy]

Those numbers are high.

[mike]

if only renters could check the credit of the landlords....my bet is the farmers were renting..

[rod smart]

They valued that sh_tty green weed at $4.5MM then there that explains why the home got foreclosed on...there are not going to see any weed at that price...what's that add up to? $35,000 for a nickel bag? That explains the housing
crisis. Reefer for $90,000,000,000 a joint just tends to break most people.

[Maurice]

I can't believe that California doesn't monitor electricity usage the way many places monitor water usage looking for water pigs. Imagine all the green house gas issues here...not just the electricity we also have fertilizer being used. Next big problem is all the CO 2 the plants give off?...I thought they took it in and gave off O 2 but I've read all the trees are a problem now. I know the smoke given off must contribute to the green house effect. I'd bet if the found all the houses in LA growing marijuana and stopped them the air would clear up. We as Californians have to come together on this....close the pot houses for clean air for our kids! and to save our earth