Suspected Ringleader Charged in Underground Pot Case

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office filed charges Tuesday against a Lancaster contractor described as the central figure in a major marijuana production ring that dug high-tech underground farms in the Antelope Valley and Arizona.

Frank Gegax, who surrendered last week, was charged with cultivation, possession, and maintaining a place for manufacture and distribution of marijuana.

Also charged Tuesday was Richard F. Yerger, 28, of Long Beach, owner of a house east of Lancaster under which federal drug agents and sheriff’s deputies last week found a concrete bunker housing a farm equipped with an irrigation system and plant-growing lights. Authorities described it as the most sophisticated marijuana production operation ever encountered in Los Angeles County, capable of producing between $75 million and $150 million worth of marijuana a year.

A second plantation was found under a house in the community of Llano last week, and two more were raided Oct. 30 by federal drug agents in Bullhead, Ariz.

Evidence shows that the 48-year-old Gegax was “the main man” in the operation, Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephen L. Cooley said.

“He was the brains,” Cooley said Tuesday. “He is the central figure in Lancaster and Arizona.”

Cooley’s description of Gegax as the head man was the first indication that investigators believe they have located the leadership of the production network, which the commander of the sheriff’s narcotics unit described as a major distributor of marijuana in Southern California.

Yerger was a “junior partner” who acted as the nominal owner of the property near Lancaster where Gegax--owner of KMG Construction in Lancaster--funded and built the sophisticated plantation, Cooley said.

Lancaster Municipal Judge Ian Grant set bail for Yerger at $2 million and his arraignment was continued until Nov. 27. Yerger will appear in court along with two men who were charged Monday. Deputies have described the two men as low-level accomplices.

Gegax, who is in federal custody in downtown Los Angeles, also faces federal charges in Phoenix alleging conspiracy to sell marijuana. More arrests are possible, Cooley said.

One suspect still sought for questioning is Yerger’s father, Richard E. Yerger, owner of the Llano property where one of the underground farms was found. The Llano farm was built this year, authorities said, and the farm near Lancaster apparently had operated for about two years.