In another example of life imitating art, drug dealers are using swanky suburban homes to grow marijuana.If this sounds familiar, it's a plot line from the popular TV show, "Weeds," in which a suburban soccer mom also doubles as a drug dealer.
Agents with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 900 marijuana plants from a Berks County home on June 25. It was one of several homes targeted over the past three years that yielded several arrests and the confiscation of growing equipment, plants and drugs ready for sale, authorities said.
Coincidentally, "Weeds," which stars Mary Louise Parker, has been on the air for three years.
A spokesperson for the DEA told The Mercury that the "grow houses" in affluent suburbs outside of the City of Reading, were located in housing developments where the homes cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to court records, the homes in this investigation were purchased for use as grow houses for between $200,000 and $350,000.
Creating grow houses out of these more upscale homes where the nothing other than the marijuana plants and growing equipment resides is a "trend that's become more common," the DEA spokesperson told reporter Brandie Kessler.
"To the average person, they can't really tell that any thing's going on in there," the spokesperson said, noting that neighbors often don't have a clue as to what's going on because of the measures the growers take.
The investigation by the DEA that lead to the recent raids began in 2005 as part of an investigation into a large-scale importation and distribution of marijuana and Ecstasy pills from Canada by individuals believed to be connected to an Asian organized crime enterprise, according to the criminal complaint.
Read the full story in today's edition of The Mercury.
And you can catch episodes of "Weeds" Monday at 10 p.m. on Showtime. All three seasons are also available on DVD. Just don't get any ideas yourself about doing something illegal.
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