Grow house for pot raided in Henderson

If you grow it, they will come.

Police raided a large marijuana grow house in a quiet Henderson neighborhood Thursday night and arrested a former Las Vegas baseball star they say was tending the plants.

Ezekiel "Zeke" Parraz, 29, was growing 186 hydroponic plants at a house in the 300 block of New Hope Drive, near Arroyo Grande Boulevard and Warm Springs Road, authorities said Friday. The home was less than a mile from Green Valley High School, where Parraz graduated in 2001 as a standout baseball player.

Parraz also played baseball at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada. He was most recently an assistant coach for the College of Southern Nevada, but school officials said his contract ended in May and had not been renewed.

"The college and I are surprised and saddened by this news," said College of Southern Nevada athletic director Marc Morse in a statement. Morse added that Parraz had been a part-time employee.

Candice Blackwell, 28, was also arrested in the police raid, conducted by a local task force dedicated to marijuana grow houses.

Both were booked on three felonies related to growing and selling marijuana.

Las Vegas police Lt. Laz Chavez, who oversees the task force, said the plants were valued at an estimated $600,000.

It was the smell of fresh-cut grass that led police to the neighborhood, Chavez said. A resident first tipped off police about a week before the bust.

"The smell is a big give-away," Chavez said. "You can smell that crap from a block away."

The unit surveilled the neighborhood to determine which house was the target, he said. On Thursday, police got a search warrant, and a Henderson SWAT made the arrests.

Parraz hadn't been living at the grow house, Chavez said, but he had been spending most of his time there. The house was a rental property, and police were working to contact the owner, he said.

Neither Parraz nor Blackwell had much of a criminal history, and there were no guns found in the house, he said. It's likely that the duo were simply tending the plants and that someone else was running the operation, Chavez said. The grow house had been active for at least six months.

Chavez said the indoor marijuana business has been a large problem in Las Vegas for several years.

Police busted 146 grow houses last year, 138 in 2010 and 108 in 2009.

In 2007 and 2008, police had seen a maximum of only 60 or 70 houses a year.

Police have busted 83 houses this year, which is about 10 behind the pace of last year. But Chavez said he thinks police are getting fewer tips, not necessarily that there are less grow houses.

"We're hoping to get more phone calls from citizens, from Crime Stoppers. Anybody that sees anything unusual we would like to give us call," Chavez said.

Criminals tend to operate from rental homes in quiet suburbs and tend to avoid the lower-income neighborhoods, he said.

Anyone with information on a suspected grow house is encouraged to call the Metropolitan Police Department's Narcotics Section at 828-3461, or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

Reporter Kyle Potter contributed to this report. Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.