Diamond Bar Mayor Steve Tye never noticed anything unusual about the upscale, three-bedroom suburban home a block from his house.
That is until Wednesday, when Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies burst in and found the entire house had been converted into a massive indoor marijuana farm, complete with elaborate irrigation system and overhead lights on timers that were hooked up illegally to bypass meter readings.
It's the second time in just over a week a house turned pot farm has been discovered in Diamond Bar, a wealthy suburb of 58,000 in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. Two more marijuana-cultivating homes were found in a neighboring city this month.
Detectives are now investigating whether the houses might be tied to a similar suburban pot-growing ring busted last year in Northern California and allegedly run by a Chinese gang.
In Diamond Bar alone, authorities have hauled away what authorities estimate to be more than $22 million in pot plants.
Tye said he was stunned when sheriff's deputies told him 1,800 marijuana plants worth an estimated $10 million were being grown near his house. He suspects the growers were counting on Diamond Bar's low profile to conceal their operation.
"It's a disturbing trend. I think people that break the law are always looking for an opportunity to stay hidden from the authorities," he said. "They've used up growing it in mountains, the outlying areas, and now their next greatest idea is doing it in neighborhoods."
Authorities in neighboring Chino Hills have found about $6 million in pot plants in recent weeks, including at one house raided Wednesday. Two weeks ago, police seized 1,300 plants from a six-bedroom house in Chino Hills, said Jodi Miller, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
Officials aren't sure whether the cases are connected, but there are some striking similarities. Both houses in Diamond Bar recently had been purchased, apparently with the intent to use suburbia as a cover for major pot cultivation. That's a substantial investment in an area where most houses sell for $600,000 to $1 million, authorities said.
In the first Diamond Bar house, deputies found a special ventilation system designed to prevent the odor of pot from escaping.
The lack of such a system in the Diamond Bar house raided Wednesday allowed the odor of marijuana to waft out to the street, which tipped neighbors off, said Lt. Jim Whitten of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Narcotics Bureau.
