Police Link Pot Farms to Nationwide Network

Sheriff’s deputies in the Antelope Valley searched the suspected site of a sixth indoor marijuana farm Tuesday, and a top federal investigator said the ring that built the sophisticated underground plantations apparently dealt the drug nationwide.

“It’s growing,” the federal drug agent, who asked not to be identified, said of the ring’s market area. “It’s beyond California.”

To date, authorities have seized $77 million worth of marijuana plants from four high-tech farms, equipped with powerful lights and irrigation systems, set up in concrete caverns dug beneath the Antelope Valley and Arizona deserts.

Twelve people have been arrested. Two were charged Tuesday in Barstow in connection with an alleged farm under construction. Federal authorities in Phoenix prepared indictments there against all 12 and possibly others, prosecutors said.

Authorities also raided two suspected farms under construction, one in Barstow and another on 200th Street East in Lancaster that was searched Tuesday by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

The unidentified owner of both properties was questioned and released by sheriff’s deputies Tuesday, but he is still under investigation.

The man, described as a contractor, recently built the house in Lancaster. No drugs were found, deputies said, but they discovered a large concrete basement believed to be the shell of an underground plantation, with wiring and plumbing materials of the type recovered in previous raids.

“It would have been operating within a couple of months,” an investigator said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Damon said evidence links the site to Frank Gegax, the Lancaster businessman described by investigators as the mastermind of the operation, who is in federal custody.

Damon said more underground farms may be found. “I don’t think we’ve got them all,” he said.

The Lancaster search also turned up construction plans for a horse barn at a house near Barstow that was raided by DEA agents and San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies last Wednesday. Investigators seized air conditioners, generators, a fuel truck and other equipment allegedly intended for converting the barn into an indoor farm.

Two San Diego-area contractors arrested in that raid--John Ralston, 49, and John McIntosh, 38--pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Barstow Municipal Court to charges of conspiracy to cultivate marijuana. They were being held in lieu of $1-million bail each.

A Phoenix grand jury is expected to return a federal indictment today against Gegax and other suspects, federal investigators said. It may also name Richard F. Yerger, the owner of a $1-million farm near Lancaster that was raided Nov. 15, they said.

Yerger and Gegax already are charged under California law with maintaining a place to cultivate marijuana, cultivation and possession, authorities said. Two alleged accomplices are charged with cultivation and possession. An arraignment for the four was continued Tuesday until Monday.

But Lancaster prosecutors will probably drop state charges against them to clear the way for federal prosecutions, Damon said. The alleged ringleaders face a maximum of only three years in prison under state law, prosecutors said. Under federal law, the leaders could face from 10 years to life in prison.

Also on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called on public works officials to determine whether the clandestine Antelope Valley farms were built without permits and take steps to prevent such construction in the future. The underground farm in a concrete bunker on Yerger’s property was apparently built without proper permits, authorities said last week.