Topic: DRUGS - on April 14, 2007 at 11:42:00 AM CEST
Tacoma Man Gets 15 Years in Prison for Very Sophisticated Marijuana Grow Operation
CHAD ROBERT LATHAM, 30, of Tacoma, Washington was sentenced today to 15 years in prison and five years of supervised release for Conspiracy to Manufacture Marijuana and Manufacturing Marijuana. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton noted that LATHAM had two prior state convictions for growing marijuana.
According to the plea agreement, LATHAM designed eight machines out of aluminum that looked like ferris wheels. Each machine held 24 rows of plants with eight plants in each row for a total of 192 plants per machine. The plants would rotate around the machine, passing by grow lights, dipping into a hydroponic grow solution at the bottom or passing under a hydroponic grow solution spray at the top. In 2003-2004, the grow operation was located in a garage in rural Pierce County in McKenna, Washington. A co-conspirator, DANIEL IRWIN, lived on the property and hung a deteriorating deer carcase near the door to the building so that the smell of the rotting deer would mask the smell of marijuana.
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