Reading man pleads guilty in pot-growing operation
BY HOLLY HERMAN PHILADELPHIA — A 29-year-old Reading man has plead ed guilty in U.S. District Court here to conspiracy to grow 1,000 marijuana plants with a street value of $450,000 in a Union Township home. Thuc Le of the 1100 block of Greenwich Street also pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. Senior Judge John P. Fullam to conspiring to distribute marijuana. Le faces a mandatory sentence of five years in federal pri son, officials said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ro bert J. Livermore said Le was part of a high-grade-marijuana growing business in the residence of two co-defendants in the 700 block of Hopewell Street. Le, who was scheduled to go to trial next week, admitted participating in the operation. Fullam scheduled sentencing in July. The judge agreed to a request from Le’s lawyer, Patrick Artur of Philadelphia, to allow Le, who has been free on $50,000 bail, to be incarcerated on April 25 to receive credit toward his eventual sentence. Investigators said the business was part of an Asian marijuana ring operating from Connecticut to Florida. A co-defendant, Hiep Tran, 29, was sentenced in March to 10 years in federal prison followed by five years of probation after being convicted by Fullam in a nonjury trial. Another co-defendant, Nghiep Nguyen, 30, who also resided in the home, pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenc ed in February to two years in federal prison plus five years of probation. Livermore said the defendants grew the plants in three rooms to ensure a large batch of the drug would be available at all times. Livermore said the defendants were preparing to harvest plants when federal Drug Enforcement Administration investigators raided the house June 25. According to court records: Philadelphia-based DEA investigators discovered in the winter of 2006 that Asian crime organizations were buying homes and converting them into marijuana growing houses. One of the groups was operating in Union Township. When DEA agents went to the Union house in February, they detected an odor of marijuana and heard ventilation fans in operation. Agents installed a pole camera nearby for surveillance and obtained a federal wiretapping order. They recorded months of activities at the house and cryptic cell phone conversations among ring members before raiding the house. The agents seized 1,000 plants and a notebook labeled “Sponge bob Squarepants” with instructions for growing marijuana. DEA estimates it cost $50,000 to buy all the necessary equipment for the facility.
Reading Eagle
