Foreclosed homes are falling into drug dealers' hands in Las Vegas. (Photo Credit: CC BY/Casey Serin/Flickr)
In the wake of the recent passage of Nevada Assembly Bill 284, foreclosure properties have continued to flood the market, and few cities have felt the pinch more than Las Vegas. Empty homes litter the suburban landscape, but many of the bargain-basement deals are being purchased. Along with residents buying places to live, drug dealers are purchasing cheap homes and converting them into marijuana “grow houses,” reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Less robo-signing, more value stabilization – eventually
While Nevada AB 284 has increased the criminal penalties for improper robo-signing foreclosures, experts note that the law’s goal of stabilizing real property values will take time. In the interim, foreclosed Las Vegas homes have been an attractive buy for marijuana dealers, according to University of Nevada, Las Vegas criminology professor Dr. William Sousa.
“You can’t have crime without opportunity,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “All those empty homes present an opportunity for criminal activity.”
Las Vegas law enforcement authorities have already taken several pot-growing families and individuals into custody. As many as 130 have been caught so far this year, including the family of Fredrica Ballard. The Ballards filled their four-bedroom foreclosure rental home with 61 marijuana plants, far above the number Nevada allows for medicinal marijuana purposes, which is seven plants.
Ballard claimed to have a doctor’s note entitling her to grow 99 plants, which is not permissible under Nevada state law, notes the Times.
Four times the price, four times the THC
The Review-Journal notes that inside a large home, marijuana growers can hydroponically cultivate more than 200 plants worth $3,000 each. That’s approximately four times the net price Mexican-grown marijuana captures, noted U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration representative Jeffrey Scott. Such plants also produce four times the amount of THC, the chemical substance that produces the “high” for users.
Las Vegas Police Lt. Laz Chavez has seen many area foreclosures “become incubators, literally, for crime.”
“Obviously, hydroponic weed is much more expensive than outdoor ditch weed,” Chavez said. “With this market, it’s almost a free-for-all right now,” Chavez told the Review-Journal.
Protecting the investment with firearms
In addition to the marijuana authorities have found in Las Vegas foreclosures, weapons troves and various toxic chemicals have also been confiscated.
“These guys aren’t the fun-loving hippies with a small garden in the backyard,” Chavez told the Review Journal. “These are dangerous criminal groups doing this.”
To southern Nevada narcotics detectives, this is nothing new. According to a report produced by the Nevada High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, nearly 40 percent of the firearms detectives seized in 2009 came from marijuana operations.
Assembly Bill 284 means more foreclosures in Nevada
Sources
Black & Lobello Law Firm on Nevada AB 284
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