Photo by Cheri Mitchell - Illegal grow discovered in Vader.
Pacific County Sheriff's Office asked for assistance from Lewis County Sheriff's Office in a large marijuana grow raid in Grayland where two individuals were arrested. From that arrest, in information obtained from those individuals and from a cell phone mapping app found on one of the phones, it was revealed that there was an illegal grow operating at 725 B Street in Vader. 725 B Street in Vader is in a dense neighborhood, directly across from City Hall. There are homes both across the street, beside the home and behind the home.
An investigation was conducted and Lewis County PUD records were obtained which revealed a spike in electricity use at the residence and the shop sitting next to the home. Surveillance was conducted and a search warrant was granted. Assessment records show that the property was purchased May 30, 2017 for $65,000 by Thuy Thi Le, who lives in California.
With assistance from the Pacific County Sheriff's Office, the search warrant was executed by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office on Friday, Dec. 8. There was no one present upon execution of the warrant. Chief Breen stated that one or two people may be living at the operation as two beds were in the empty home.
A search of the shop by Chief Dustin Breen, Detective Sergeant Kevin Englebertson and other officers revealed approximately 674 mature marijuana plants in the two large and one small grow rooms. The plants were two to three weeks from maximum maturity but were marketable at the time of the drug bust. Chief Dustin Breen stated, "The street value of 700 plants range from a 375,000 at it's current value up to $1,000,000 for matured plants."
Sheriff Robert Snaza stated that they went to a great effort to conceal the operation. There were fences built between the house and the grow to conceal movement of people and supplies between the two buildings. In the shop, there were two very large incoming air vents and two filtering vents in each of the two large rooms. Interior walls had been built throughout the shop to conceal the operation. There were grow lights with 1,000 watt bulbs every few feet on each ceiling that were on timers. Sheriff Snaza went on to say that "This operation, like the one in Pacific County, is very sophisticated and professional. They knew what they were doing." He further stated that "They suspect that these were both Chinese Nationals illegal grows."