Basement marijuana farms found in metro Atlanta

[jholmes800]

GAINESVILLE - Authorities are discovering large quantities of marijuana plants growing in the basements of houses in a multi-county area in metro Atlanta.
The latest report came this week from Hall County where authorities discovered hundreds of marijuana plants in the basement of a south Hall County home, the second such operation uncovered in the same area in the past few days.
Authorities in Fayette, Henry, Newton, Rockdale, Butts and Coweta counties executed 13 search warrants earlier this month and arrested 26 people in a marijuana operation. Twenty-five of them were Cuban nationals, the Fayette County Sheriff's office said.
The grow operations in those homes contained approximately 200 plants for a total of about 2,100 plants.
The Fayette County department said the main target of an ongoing investigation, Merquiades Martinez, ran the elaborate grow operation through a hydroponics store and real estate dealings in Fayette County and surrounding counties. The term hydroponics refers to growing plants in moist material other than soil.
Gainesville-Hall County drug agents said the houses are bought specifically to create marijuana "farms" and equipped with irrigation systems, a separate heating and air unit for the basement, growing lights, fans and heaters.
"They started out in California buying houses in high dollar subdivisions, never actually moving in, but converting basements into absolute marijuana grows and that's what we're seeing here," said Joe Amerling, a Hall County drug agent. No arrests had been reported in the Hall County cases.
In Hall County, agents found 173 marijuana plants at one house and another 115 plants at another house - both in the Chestnut Mountain area near Gainesville. The estimated value of the crop in the two houses was $730,000. Amerling said one of the houses was probably valued at about $250,000 and the other $300,000.
Amerling said the houses in Hall County had similar layouts - privacy fences in the back yard with multiple air conditioning units, one having an industrial-sized air conditioner.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/...n_crime_courts