Feds Raid Illegal Pot Grows In Metro Denver

DENVER, CO – Multiple illegal pot grows in metro Denver were the targets of federal raids early Thursday morning, the United States 
Drug Enforcement Administration told media sources.

The Post reported that DEA officials had issued at least 30 warrants on homes with alleged illegal pot grows in private houses in Adams County, including in Commerce City. The addresses were raided in a coordinated campaign around 7 a.m., the Denver Post reported.

Randy Ladd, spokesman for the DEA’s Denver field office, told the Post the grow houses are owned and operated by people with "ties to organized crime syndicates on the East Coast."

Colorado is the only state that allows people to privately grow marijuana at home, Ladd told the Post, which makes black market grow houses easier to operate.

"People don't live in these homes," Ladd told the Post after an October DEA drug raid in Aurora. "They bought them solely to run marijuana operations."

An Aurora Police spokesperson told Patch the Aurora police had not publicly confirmed that they were working with the DEA on Denver-area warrants. In October, 2018 the DEA raided least 24 homes near Aurora’s Cherokee Trail High School.

Black market marijuana rings have been tied to 11 first-degree murder cases in the 18th Judicial District, Adams County District Attorney George Brauchler told the Post. The DEA alleges that illegal pot grows in Colorado sell marijuana in states where it's not legalized, " increasing the numbers of murders, robberies and gun sales. The drug traffickers are part of multi-drug operations that sell cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids, and heroin," the Post reported.

READ MORE in the Denver Post

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