What's new

Marijuana mogul, caught because he didn't want to pay utility bill

jd4083

Active member
Veteran
depending on where you are, at a certain amount of bulbs it is "safer" to steal electricity than it is to pay it...doesn't make it right, though...
 

headiez247

shut the fuck up Donny
Veteran
Electric companies generally don't do the ratting out since people do run servers out of their home, and a $500 is a small bill for a huge house, pay your bill, they just want the money. The Investors like paying customers, and they wouldn't turn down the easy monthly paycheck.

Not true. Especially on the East Coast, if your running a shit ton of electricity like 15+ lights, I would absolutely be worried about something going down. The only place this isn't true is in California.

Damn, I feel for this guy...although a stupid mistake, we all do make them.

10 years minimum is a HUGE mountain to overcome.

Ya.... charged with over 1,000 plants is basically the worst case scenario. Hes fucked.

depending on where you are, at a certain amount of bulbs it is "safer" to steal electricity than it is to pay it...doesn't make it right, though...

Especially on the East Coast this is very true for large scale grows. I do NOT condone stealing electric at all. If anything get a rural property and run a genny, I'm just saying this is WHY people tend to do it. Especially if running a huge op, they aren't stealing to save a g or 2 a month, its because they are scared of shit going down.
 

LIFEISGOOD

Member
I hate it for him, and his family.

I hate it for him, and his family.

:yeahthats Dead on Bro. East coast and up tight.
I can't believe that's all he got. The minimum??? Sounds like he payed someone off.

I wouldn't wish it on anyone. But its a good reminder that WE all better have our shit together especially, if you are a big fish.

If he hadn't done such a shit job he would still be rollin'. Someone with a network like that should have had a professional on the pay roll. In this business half ass will get you dead, arrested, and ripped off.

Just remember that we are all playing for keeps.

Stay safe Y'all
 

Yes4Prop215

Active member
Veteran
damn the east coast is definately harder to go big on. this guy was probably flooding the market with mid grade beasters though....10 years is fucking bullshit though. read the other day a guy got less for attempted murder and attempted rape..HOW THE FUCK IS THAT?

and also today a couple in california got 5 years for growing 100 plants! fucking ridiculous, i hate this fucking country sometimes. what stupid bumblefuck judge would let that shit slide. shit i wish i could be a judge, i would hand out "released on own recognizance" to everyone convicted of marijuana growing..
 

LIFEISGOOD

Member
I just reread my post and realized how heavy it sounded. The professional and the dead references, well, I meant an electrician.


Nice post Phillthy
 

ijim

Member
Depending on the cost of electricity I figure he was running about 55 1000 watt lights. The noise of a generator to run 55000 watts would have been great. Power companies regularly compare the amount of power used on a site to power used 12 months earlier. I'm sure this was not the first site he bypassed the meter. His electrician did not account for the amperage draw and used to small of wires im sure. The best rout would have been to replaced the roof with lexan and a light coat of silver or white paint. And only use the lights for a few of hours in the winter and just darkening tarps in the summer. Just shitty planing and management.
 

Shcrews

DO WHO YOU BE
Veteran
if you're gonna juice, only do it for a cycle or at most two...

and for fucks sake, get a good electrican..
 

SS-

Active member
Yeh man out in florida It's crazy how many people steal power. All the time it's video's on the news of grow's over 30kw in houses. Shit it was one on the other day that looked like it was atleast 50 lights in a HOUSE. The big question I don't understand is; why do these guys push their luck staying at the same place for so long? Maybe it's just me but shit i'd only do 2 cycles of flowering only at a place that was stealing power. I mean damn how DOESN'T the elec. company notice that much power disappearing.

Not only that but anything over 24 plants here is 3 year MMS. Fuck having clones and everything at the same place your stealing that much power for so long. Just asking to get fucked IMO.
 
M

merlot

I don't see how someone can be making so much money, but still go cheap on the electrician.

What easier way to get caught, then rigging something up half-assed.

Another case of greed getting the best of someone.

It also sucks that clones are considered the same as a large mother or flowering plant. I mean eventually they will get there, but they shouldn't be on the plant count I don't think.
 

DirtDoctor

Member
25 pounds a week per house huh. I'd like to live there for a year

lol, do the math.


25 lbs/week = a 25 light room finishing off every week. So, best case scenario - a tight 8 week turn-around - he'd need to have 25x8= 400 lights in his house, and one hell of a veg room. Sound likely?

No.

Cops are full of shit, as usual.
 

ijim

Member
Sounds like his electrician used the wrong size wires to handle the load. With money estimated he should have been able to run 55 1000 watt lights and use the existing ventilation with custom filters.
 

I.M. Boggled

Certified Bloomin' Idiot
Veteran
All this Prohibition stuff is getting pretty old...

All this Prohibition stuff is getting pretty old...

picture.php


Phila. man facing life in prison after marijuana-growing business goes up in smoke
October 29, 2010
Inquirer Staff Writer

No one likes paying the utility bill, but one criminal probably wishes he had.

A multi-state marijuana-growing business was exposed because one operation went up in flames, with the fire caused by pirated electricity through faulty wiring, according to prosecutors.

Anthony Bui, 57, of Philadelphia, the alleged owner of a string of marijuana-growing facilities stretching from Connecticut to Florida, pleaded guilty Wednesday to numerous drug and money-laundering counts.

According to prosecutors, Bui ran lucrative operations out of houses in New Britain, Conn.; Birdsboro, Pa.; Staley, N.C.; and Jacksonville, Fla.
He also imported hundreds of pounds of Canadian marijuana, hidden in tractor-trailers, that he distributed along the Eastern seaboard.
He plowed his profits into his commercial fishing company in Egg Harbor, N.J., to disguise the source of the money, prosecutors said.

http://articles.philly.com/2010-10-29/news/24954863_1_marijuana-plants-operation-electricity

And the actual sentence received is:
JAIL FOR HEAD OF HIGH-TECH MARIJUANA OPERATION

Anthony Bui, 57, a Philadelphia man who organized and financed a network of high-tech, indoor marijuana-growing facilities that stretched from Florida to Connecticut, was sentenced on May 11th, 2011 to 16 years in a federal lockup.
http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-...ladelphia-man-marijuana-operation-parx-casino

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I was gonna say that at least he didn't get life...but he probably did. The mans 57 i.e. probably gets to die in custody while a compelled guest of the federal bureau of prisons depending on his individual inherited genetic propensity towards old age amongst many other factors.
I can understand their compulsion to punish him for being a thief, but this is madness of a mandatory 10 is outrageous for a non-violent crime that involves a demonized herb, the sentence is more criminal than the the "crime".
Obviously his penny pinchin' ways did him in, paying the electric bill is generally cheaper by far for most folks compared to bail and attorney fees. Outlaws have a hard time not being outlaws some days, one lousy executive decision on his part and he be adios amigo.
The man sounds like he was quite the ambitious entrepreneur all in all.
As this Federal Cannabis prohibition continues to destroy lives, we mark an anniversary here in the United States.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TODAY, JUNE 17th, 2011 MARKS THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF
"THE WAR ON DRUGS."


On June 17, 1971, Richard Nixon announced a plan to “tighten the noose around the necks of drug peddlers, and thereby loosen the noose around the necks of drug users.”


Spurred on by an estimated 30,000 Vietnam servicemen addicted to heroin, and an estimated 250,000 civilian drug addicts, Nixon announced the War on Drugs and the formation of a new government office, the Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention.

Forty years later, major world leaders are declaring that we lost the drug war.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, led by former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, as well as former secretary of state George Shultz and former secretary general of the United Nations, released a study detailing the reasons for this conclusion.

In a New York Times op-ed written Friday, Jimmy Carter refers to the report and notes some surprising statistics:

Cost on state budgets:

In 1980, 10 percent of California’s budget went to higher education and 3 percent to prisons. In 2010, almost 11 percent went to prisons and only 7.5 percent to higher education.

Explosion of prison population:

At the end of 1980, 500,000 people were in prison. At the end of 2009, 2.3 million were incarcerated. Three percent of all American adults are in jail.

Increase in drug consumption:

Global consumption of opiates has increased 34.5 percent, cocaine 27 percent and cannabis 8.5 percent from 1998 to 2008.

In Time magazine, Tim Padgett writes about the bloody war ravaging Mexico:

Our obsession with incarcerating every drug offender we can find at home and eradicating every coca leaf we can find abroad – without helping American addicts get adequate treatment or Latin American farmers find viable alternatives to poppies – simply makes the work of drug interdiction harder, if not futile.
We’ve got to find another way, one that costs us less money and fewer lives.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of police, judges and jailers and civilians who support legalization, hand delivered a message to President Obama’s drug czar, asking to end the war on drugs.

In the rising chorus of voices lamenting the failure of the war on drugs, what are some of the recommendations on how to move forward?
The report calls for decriminalizing drugs, especially cannabis; ending the stigmatization of people who use drugs, but do no harm to others; offering health services; and stopping the arrests of petty drug criminals.

Of course, this is not the first time the war on drugs has been declared lost.
In 2007, The Washington Post ran an article titled “The Lost War.”
Four years later, the war still rages on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...no-end-in-sight/2011/06/17/AG1qdyYH_blog.html
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Our ICMAG friend Eddy, for those who may not have heard, is currently doing a mandatory federal dime for Cannabis.
His contact info is:
Charles Edward Lepp
Federal Prison Camp Lompoc
90157-011 3705 West Farm Road
Lompoc, CA 93436
You can put money on Eddy’s “books” in prison through Western Union. The Bureau of Prisons does not supply prisoners with sundries such as toothbrushes and soaps, and often doesn’t cover all meals. Eddy needs money in his account to purchase these goods. How to do so is detailed here.
http://freeeddylepp.com/


-IMB-
 
Last edited:

ijim

Member
The man was used to doing his thing in residential homes where high electric bills send a red flag to the provider. If he would have registered the commercial property as say a manufacturing company the high electric use would have been expected. I don't think he was cheap just a bit short on intelligence.
 

Hydropimp

Active member
Veteran
When ppl rip power you only hear about it when they get caught. Most big non med state growers rip power. It is easy to pay for a light or 4 but over 8 and you have a hole in your pocket.

And most of the time it is someone who dropped a dime on you.
 
Top