http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20101028_marijuana_mogul__caught.html
Marijuana mogul, caught because he didn't want to pay utility bill
By Sam Wood
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The alleged owner of a chain of marijuana hot houses stretching from Connecticut to Florida plead guilty Wednesday in Philadelphia to numerous drug and money laundering counts.
Anthony Bui, 57, of Philadelphia, ran lucrative grow operations out of houses in New Britain, Conn.; Birdsboro, Pa.; Staley, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla., according to prosecutors.
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.
But he didn't want to pay his utility bill at one of his operations. And that caused his empire to go up in smoke.
Bui was converting a former chicken warehouse in North Carolina into a massive growing operation when it caught fire. As a small blaze burned just outside the house, volunteer firefighters detected a "strange smell." An assistant fire chief opened the door to the oversize chicken coop and inside discovered the pampered plants bathed in light radiating from high tech fixtures, prosecutors said.
Investigators later determined the fire had been sparked because the growers were pirating electricity. The wires had been poorly rigged to bypass the electric meter, prosecutors said.
The local power company estimated that the North Carolina operation had stolen $2,261 in electricity from May 20, 2005 until June 30, 2005, according to court documents.
DEA agents soon discovered the three other facilities. According to court documents, Bui set up the operation in Connecticut for his son and the son's friend. In Birdsboro, southeast of Reading, marijuana was cultivated in every room of the house and could produce 25 pounds of marijuana every few weeks that sold for $2,500 a pound, said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger.
More than a dozen members of Bui's organization have been investigated and prosecuted, Memeger said.
Bui pleaded guilty to conspiracy to manufacture more than 1,000 marijuana plants, conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. He faces a maximum of life in prison with a mandatory minimum of 10 years when he is sentenced on Jan. 11, 2011.