By CHELYEN DAVIS and BECKY PIEDEL
RICHMOND--Authorities have arrested one man and are seeking a Tappahannock man after a drug raid on four houses, including one in Caroline County, netted more than 1,000 marijuana plants.
In a news conference in Richmond yesterday, state police said a citizen's tip led them to investigate two houses--in Ruther Glen and Powhatan--in which high-quality marijuana was being grown for sale, and two more houses in Tappahannock and Colonial Heights.
Law enforcement officials led a raid on those houses last week. The raid netted 1,084 marijuana plants and about 3 pounds of processed marijuana. Police said it was high-quality marijuana with an estimated street value of about $3.3 million, making it one of the biggest drug busts in the state.
Documents and three vehicles also were seized, but no weapons were found at any of the houses.
Police arrested a Powhatan man, David Trc Luong, 36, and are seeking Luu Dinh, 35, of 830 Kino Road in Tappahannock, in connection with the marijuana-growing operation. Luong owns the Caroline and Powhatan houses. He faces charges in Caroline and Powhatan counties for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, manufacturing marijuana and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Additionally, both counties are considering felony charges relating to the illegal use of electrical power: The houses had been wired to bypass the electric meters, preventing utilities from detecting the thousands of kilowatt-hours consumed by the plants' powerful grow lights. The operators were, in effect, using power without paying for it.
The Caroline County house, at 25308 Ruther Glen Road, contained 944 marijuana plants.
"It was unbelievable. It was huge," said Caroline Sheriff Tony Lippa.
The house sat on 15 acres, at the end of a long gravel driveway, in an isolated part of the county. Neighbors did drive by it on occasion, though, and pains had been taken to make it look lived-in. The yard was mowed, for example, and the outside maintained, Lippa said.
Sure, the people kept odd hours--they would come home, then usually leave an hour or two later. But next-door neighbor Denise Young heard they were restaurant owners, so their coming and going made sense to her.
Young's parents built the Ruther Glen house four years ago; they sold it in October 2004. The house was on the market for only six days, and its new owners moved in less than a month later.
Young remembers seeing the same three or four cars travel down the drive. The house is one of three secluded from the main road by a long entranceway.
"I'd see them come down and mow the grass. They'd give a neighborly wave," Young said. "But I never met them."
That neighborly feeling changed Thursday afternoon when Young and her 14-year-old son peeked out a window of their home. A SWAT car and several police cars--marked and unmarked--replaced their normal view of grass and trees. A helicopter hovered overhead.
"We were pretty nervous," Young said.
It turned out her neighbors weren't the men she frequently saw driving onto the property or mowing the lawn.
And the home's interior had been stripped and converted into an efficient marijuana-growing operation, police said.
Police showed video of the inside of the Caroline house, where a jungle of mature marijuana plants filled the basement, 1,000-watt lights hung from the ceiling, fans kept the air circulating and a wall of electrical outlets powered the operation.
Lippa said he's hoping Rappahannock Electrical Cooperative, the company whose electricity was being used to run the Caroline operation, will be able to estimate the amount and value of the power taken to run the growing operation in the house. He estimated the house was about 4,000 square feet, with a full basement.
Police estimate the growing operation at the Caroline house had been going on for four to five months, and said their investigation has been in the works nearly as long. It was a joint effort between the Virginia State Police, the Rappahannock River Drug Task Force, the Caroline County Sheriff's Office and Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control.
Police said the person who tipped them off was not from Caroline County, but declined to divulge more details of their investigation, which they said is continuing.
"It's going to keep going from here," Lippa said.
Police said they believe this is part of a larger operation, and they're talking with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police are seeking the public's help in finding Dinh.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts should call the state police drug hot line at 800/553-DOPE (3673) or the agency's Richmond Division at 800/552-9965.
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