Antioch has become a hub for illegal marijuana grow operations, state officials say
California's Department of Cannabis Control recently announced they have uncovered more illegal pot grows in Antioch than anywhere else in the state except Los Angeles.
The suburban, tree-lined streets in the newer neighborhoods in Antioch don't seem like the place where you'd find an illegal marijuana grow house. For the most part, it's nothing but a sea of cookie-cutter homes, all part of planned communities.
According to experts, that's exactly why criminals are setting up their illegal grows inside homes.
"This is pretty much my man cave right here," said Roderick Thomas as he gestured around his garage.
It's where loves to tinker on projects and also keep a watchful eye on the neighborhood. That's why he was so surprised to see three houses on his street still had power during a blackout a few years ago.
"Every house on the block would be dark except those three. So it was my intentions of going down there and talking to them and trying to figure out what did they have to keep the lights on because I was interested," said Thomas. He said he tried to watch for people to come home, but rarely ever saw anyone.
"There always was a white van. And it would stay there for a few minutes and the next thing you know, it would be gone. And you wouldn't see anything for quite some time. That house was like a ghost house. All three of them," explained Thomas.
The Department of Cannabis Control recently shared video from the April raid of one of the homes. It was owned by an officer with the Oakland Police Department. Inside they found jugs of chemicals, and enough equipment to power a massive illegal marijuana grow -- room after room filled with plants, grow lights, fans, and water systems.
"They're relatively large houses, they're in nice neighborhoods. They're hard to discover, they're easy to disguise," said Kevin McInerney with the Department of Cannabis Control.
He oversees the enforcement activities of the department, including raids, in Northern California. He says Antioch has become a hot-bed of activity partly for these illegal grow houses because of the real estate market.
The criminals running the operations can buy a large house for much less than the cost of a similarly sized warehouse. When they get busted, the owners can immediately remove the grow equipment and still sell the house at a profit.
"They can flip the house back, and they've made the money through both the illicit cultivation, and on the sale of the house, because they're profiting about $200,000 per house that they're selling," said McInerney.
The illegal grow house that was owned by the Oakland Police officer was listed for sale at the end of July and the sign out front already says the sale is pending.
The other two houses on the same street that were also raided are currently for sale too.
"To those people who own these homes, just know we're coming. We're going to shut you down and we're going to prosecute you," said Antioch Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe.
He says these illegal grow houses have been an issue in the community for years, partly because they're so hard to identify. Thomas said he unknowingly lived next to one for years.
"It was a total shock to me. It just goes to show you, that saying, you never know what's going on behind closed doors," he said.
The Department of Cannabis Control says these are very sophisticated grows. For the most part, they are the work of Chinese organized crime rings -- so much so that they're the ones producing the majority of the black-market marijuana in the state right now, not the Mexican drug cartels.
As for the Oakland Police officer who owned one of the homes in Antioch that was raided, he currently has not been criminally charged in connection with the grow, but he is on paid administrative leave from the police department.