Police bust southwest valley marijuana grow house

Acting on tips from neighbors that there was a powerful, skunky smell coming from one house on the block of a southwest valley neighborhood, Las Vegas police secured a search warrant Friday afternoon and busted into a two-story house where they found between 500 and 1,000 pot plants.

The discovery of the grow house on the 9700 block of Cathedral Stairs Court followed a Wednesday raid on a home on Trickling Stream Circle near Desert Inn and Fort Apache roads, where authorities found 1,500 plants with a street value of $4.5 million, a record for the Metropolitan Police Department.

Police aren't certain yet whether the two growing operations are related, spokesman and officer Jose Hernandez said.

In Wednesday's bust, a couple were taken into custody and identified as Zheng Bio Chang and Chen Hui Quin. The charges they face include possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell.

The suspects remain at large in Friday afternoon's raid at the home near Hacienda Avenue and Grand Canyon Drive, Hernandez said.

"There's a good deal of violence that can be associated with these grow houses," Hernandez said. "Bad guys are going to rip bad guys off. This is a lucrative business."

Throughout the day and well into the evening, officers were going through the house and emptying out the rooms, which were piled high with plants, Hernandez said.

Each plant, when mature, is capable of yielding a pound of weed, he said. He said that police, however, could not immediately put a street price tag on the dope.

Officers were searching the home for other drugs.

In Wednesday's bust, $30,000 in cash was found, but as of late Friday night, Hernandez said only pot plants had been discovered in the southwest valley house.

The dwelling is owned by a group of individuals in what appears to be a trust.

The growing operation was so elaborate that NV Energy had to be called in to cut off the electricity, which exceeded the voltage that a house of its size is designed to handle, Hernandez said.

Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.