Large-scale marijuana bust nets arrests across metro area

    BRIGHTON — A similar scene played out in communities across the metro area Jan. 25.
    Drug task force agents, aided by local law enforcement agencies, swept into unassuming neighborhoods from Brighton to Breckenridge, seizing scores of marijuana plants as well dry marijuana, a bevy of weapons and large sums of U.S. and Iraqi currency.
    In all, law enforcement officials, led by the North Metro Drug Task Force, raided 25 marijuana grow houses. Fifteen were spread across Adams County (four in Brighton, one in Commerce City, one in Northglenn, four in Thornton, one in Westminster, and three in unincorporated Adams County). Three homes were also raided in Broomfield, four in Denver, one in Frederick, one in Erie and one in Breckenridge.
    And when the proverbial smoke had cleared from the raids – the culminating act of a 10-month investigation that uncovered a large marijuana distribution ring operating via the U.S. Postal Service – authorities were ready to call Operation Sweet Leaf a success. 17th Judicial District Attorney Don Quick praised the work of the law enforcement agencies involved in operation. He brushed aside the ongoing national debate over the legalization of marijuana.
    “It’s illegal,” Quick said, flanked by area law enforcement officials as well as a representative from the U.S. Postal Service inspection services. “This group isn’t up for a debate about whether marijuana laws should be changed to make it legal or not. We’re in law enforcement, and we enforce the law just like the federal authorities involved in this investigation enforce the federal law.”
    Only at one of the raided houses were the two occupants able to produce medicinal marijuana licenses, and 25 plants were not seized.
    If the haul of drugs, weapons and cash collected during the raid wasn’t impressive enough, the breadth of the operation and the homes targeted during the raids brought the plight of illegal marijuana grow operations to the backyard of many surprised residents.
    “There’s a lot of, even in this case, houses that were strictly grow houses,” North Metro Drug Task Force Cmdr. Jerry Peters said. “Nobody was living in them. They are in nice neighborhoods. The entire house, at least the basement portion, is set up for a grow facility. You can smell these marijuana grows from the sidewalk. You can smell them from the neighbor’s yard.”
    Quick added that the location of the grow houses was second to the danger posed from both a drug standpoint and the environmental ramifications of marijuana grow houses, whether it be a big home or a small one.
    “I think these grows are a hazard whether they’re in a large home in a big subdivision or a small home in an area where folks don’t have a large house,” he said.
    Officials were tipped off last year by the discovery of a marijuana shipment to another state. They are aware of at least seven states where marijuana was sent from Colorado.
    “We’re starting to see a large quantity of our marijuana going to other states, either through the U.S. Postal Service or through trafficking routes on the interstate,” Peters said.  “We’re starting to see that at an alarming rate. We’re starting to see a lot more marijuana grown here and sent to other states.”
    Sixteen arrest warrants were issued in connection to Operation Sweet Leaf with a total of 69 potential criminal racketeering charges. Thirteen of the 16 suspects had been arrested as of last week and they are expected to make their court appearances throughout February. None of the suspects were identified.
    
Contact Kevin Denke at kdenke@metrowestnewspapers.com or 303-659-2522, ext. 225.

Photo by Kevin Denke

Don Quick, district attorney for the 17th Judicial District, explains the impact made by Operation Sweet Leaf on marijuana grow operations.

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Photo by Kevin Denke

North Metro Drug Task Force Cmdr. Jerry Peters, points to an example of one the many marijuana grow operations that they disrupted during a sweeping series of raids Jan. 25.

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Graphic by Jody Irsik

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