Trial of Accused Subterranean Marijuana Farm Mastermind to Begin

The believed mastermind behind three sophisticated underground marijuana plantations discovered in the Antelope Valley and Arizona last year will go on trial Tuesday.

Frank E. Gegax, 48, of Lancaster is scheduled to be tried in Prescott, Ariz., on federal charges that he headed an operation of subterranean marijuana farms in Lancaster and the Mojave Valley in Arizona that produced a harvest worth more than $75 million on the street.

“He is it . . . the major leader,” Assistant U. S. Atty. Jim Lacey said of Gegax.

Gegax, who is charged with conspiracy to manufacture and possess marijuana with intent to sell, could face 20 years in prison if convicted.

Federal authorities said Gegax’s high-tech plantations supplied a nationwide marijuana sales network. The owner of a Lancaster-based construction company, Gegax surrendered in November after federal and local drug agents raided two pot bunkers in Arizona and a third near Lancaster.

Authorities said Gegax used his expertise to supervise the construction of the concrete bunkers at an estimated cost of as much as $1 million each, as well as two others that were in the process of being built when they were discovered on remote properties in Lancaster and Barstow.

Another underground farm found near Palmdale is considered by investigators to have been a copycat operation headed by the father of one of Gegax’s junior partners. Federal charges in that case are pending against the father in Los Angeles.

Underground marijuana farms have been found before, but the size and sophisticated design of the Antelope Valley operation took investigators by surprise. More than 6,000 plants were found in the 7,000-square-foot bunker underneath a house in Lancaster, off Avenue E near 40th Street East.

The marijuana was being cultivated in a hydroponic garden with automatic water and fertilization systems. A diesel generator powered dozens of lights designed to help plants grow.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and federal agents in Arizona arrested 13 people, from low-level caretakers to Gegax and Richard F. Yerger, the 28-year-old owner of the house in Lancaster. A 14th suspect is still being sought.

The arrests were consolidated into one case under a federal indictment in Arizona. But six months later, only Gegax faces trial.

The other defendants, including Yerger and Gegax’s two brothers, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, Lacey said in a telephone interview from Phoenix. Under terms of the plea agreements, all have promised to cooperate with authorities and none face maximum prison terms of more than 10 years. They will not be sentenced until after Gegax’s trial.

“There is not much of a case left,” Lacey said. “It is just Gegax. The other 12 have pleaded guilty.”

Gegax’s trial before U. S. District Court Judge Paul Rosenblatt is expected to last two weeks.

Lacey would not disclose whether any of Gegax’s former co-defendants--including his brothers--will testify against him. Gegax’s attorney, Alan Kyman of Phoenix, declined to comment.

The case of the underground pot farmers received wide media attention. In the weeks after the raid, the Lancaster property was stripped by looters who took some of the cultivation equipment.

Use of large-scale bunkers by marijuana farmers was unusual but not unprecedented. Some officials with the Drug Enforcement Agency said the Antelope Valley farms marked a switch in marijuana production from outdoor farms in Northern California to underground facilities in Southern California deserts.

But Lacey said he does not expect the method to become popular with cultivators of the illegal drug. “I think that when people see the sentences that come down from this case, it will be a deterrent,” the prosecutor said.