Cuban pot rings: Cops call them 'organized crime at its best'

Cuban refugees are dominating arrests in Florida's indoor-marijuana trade in
what investigators call a nearly punishment-free crime.

Born decades after Fidel Castro took power, groups of young Cubans are
turning to the lucrative business of raising ultrapotent pot worth up to $4,500
a pound without fear of deportation or lengthy prison sentences. Probation is a
common sentence for anyone convicted in state court of running a grow house,
drug agents say. And, unlike with other foreign-born felons, U.S. policy
prevents the deportation of Cubans.

South Florida groups identified by law enforcement as Cuban Drug Trafficking
Organizations now Tiffany and
co control hundreds of grow houses that have sprung up from Miami to
Atlanta since 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, court records
and interviews by the Orlando Sentinel with local and federal drug agents.

"This takes me back to the old days of the mob," Polk County sheriff's
Organized Crime Squad Sgt. Julio Lima said of strictly run Cuban pot
rings. "This is organized crime at its best."

Statewide, records aren't kept that specify the nationalities of those who
run grow houses. However, Cuban influence has risen rapidly:

--South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area supervisors estimated
that Cubans who arrived in the U.S. within the past five years represent 85
percent to 90 percent of the suspects arrested in Florida on grow-house-related
charges. They based their estimate on arrests in South Florida -- the center of
the trade -- and two statewide busts in 2008 and 2009 known as "D-Day" and
"Eagle Claw."

--In Poinciana, one of Central Florida's hot spots for illegal cultivation,
Cuban-born suspects represent about 85 percent of growers arrested on both sides
of the Osceola-Polk county line in this community of 70,000.

Some of the best data in the state on this little known aspect of the drug
trade are kept by the Polk bangles County
Sheriff's Office. A spreadsheet it keeps on every grow-house bust since 2005
shows that 142 of 172 suspects -- 84 percent -- caught tending marijuana grow
houses have identified their place of birth as Cuba.

--Central Florida drug agents say in the past year Cuban-born suspects ran
about 20 of 41 grow houses in Brevard County, nine of 12 grow houses in Orange
County, 10 of 13 in Osceola County, nine of 11 in Lake County, none of seven in
Seminole County, and 12 of 42 in Volusia County. In North Florida, drug agents
say, the Cuban figure runs about 70 percent and higher.

"It used to be we'd find a couple of outdoor grows in the Ocala [National]
Forest," said Sgt. Donnie Winston of the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Marion
deputies have busted more than 60 grow houses since early 2007 in the rural
county known for horse farms. "Now, everywhere we turn there seems to be another
indoor Cuban grow."

The topic is sensitive in a state where the status of Cuban refugees was a
badge of honor until tainted by a few thousand criminals in the 1980s Mariel
boatlift.

"The last thing we want to do in law enforcement is crucify the
Cuban-American community as a whole -- rings they have
made South Florida what it is today," said Capt. Joe Mendez of the South Florida
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force. "That's why we are saying these
are Cuban refugees, recent arrivals. ... They arrive here on a raft, and drug
dealers give them a place to live and promise them they'll own the [grow] house
in a year or two."

Cuban-American National Council President Guarione M. Diaz in Miami was
unaware of the high percentage of young Cuban-born suspects arrested statewide
in the pot trade.

Told of the 348 grow-house-related arrests last year in Miami-Dade County,
Diaz said, "Twenty thousand Cubans arrive in South Florida every year, so
numerically 300 arrests would be a relatively small number, but I think even one
is too many."

In the U.S. last year, 49,500 Cubans were granted legal-permanent-residency
status, according to the Congressional Research Service.

No central database

Cuban drug rings represent one of many different drug-trafficking
organizations in Florida identified by origin by the federal government. Those
include African-American, Bahamian, Caucasian (non-Hispanic), Colombian,
Dominican, Israeli, Jamaican, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Venezuelan.

"You deal with people you know -- that's a common trait in most drug
organizations," Mark R. Trouville, special agent in charge of DEA's Miami
office, said of criminals bonding along national, ethnic or racial lines. "They
stick together for trust, loyalty, safety and security."

Though Florida cops have learned Cuban drug rings sometimes run a
half-dozen grow houses or more at the same time, there still is much about the
organizations they don't know. The reason: There is no central database for
sharing information about the illegal business.

No law-enforcement organizations track the number of drug rings or
arrests. Likewise, no one keeps a tote board of pot growth in Florida or
nationally.

And though drug agents know a suspect's nationality, they don't always learn
whether a grow-house worker was recruited from his home country or was lured
into the trade after getting to the U.S.

Raiding a marijuana patch almost never leads to the arrests of anyone more
important than low-level workers.

"None of them know each other, and that's for a reason," Lt. Steve Ward of
the Polk sheriff's Special Investigations Unit said of ring members.
"If anyone of them gets busted, they can't point the finger at each other, and
they can't point the finger at the boss."

Said Highlands County sheriff's Capt. Randy LaBelle: "None of them will flip.
These people are promised an attorney and know their families will be taken care
of if they do time."

It is the lack of arrests of ringleaders that has kept investigators from
drawing a complete diagram of Cuban marijuana-growing organizations. The few
exceptions of bosses busted have come in much larger federal cases after months
of surveillance.

For instance, in late September, Jose "Crazy Legs" Diaz and Herman "El Indio"
Torres, both of Naples, were arrested and charged as ringleaders of eight grow
houses from Sarasota to Miami. An investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration and eight local and county police agencies confiscated more than
1,600 plants -- and took 18 months. Local law enforcement doesn't have the
resources to conduct such lengthy probes.

100 is magic number

This much the cops know: Whoever is calling the shots in the Cuban
indoor-grow organizations is reading U.S. and Florida statutes about drug crimes
and penalties.

Because of that, few suspects convicted in grow-house operations ever face
harsh sanctions. Off the top, cufflinks they
know not to grow 100 or more plants, the magic number that would expose them to
tough federal sentences.

Last year, Florida led the nation in grow-house shutdowns, raiding 1,022 of
them, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center. The average number of
plants seized in those houses: 76.

Most busts stay in state court, where conviction as a first-time offender
typically means probation, according to court records and drug agents across
Florida.

Take the May 30 case of Lucio Lozano, 46, wife Iris Hernandez and their
23-year-old son Luisvan Lozano-Hernandez. The family was receiving food stamps
and Medicaid as Cuban-born refugees when their grow house was busted in Port St.
John. Their marijuana was in full bloom, according to Brevard County court
records.

Lucio Lozano, an electrician, told police he rewired the house and illegally
tapped underground utilities, according to arrest records and court records. He
also admitted he planned sell the pot for $3,000 a pound.

Their punishment? Each was sentenced to 24 months' probation, court records
show. That's a stark contrast to what can happen in cases in which 100 or more
plants are found. The federal sentencing guideline is five years minimum, 40
years maximum.

The lack of punishment frustrates cops.

"We'll pull 300 pounds of weed out of one of these, and they're getting
probation," said LaBelle, who has shut down 75 Cuban-run grow houses in
Highlands County. "It's utterly ridiculous. They're getting less time than a guy
getting caught with two rocks of cocaine that cost maybe 40 bucks."

When arrested, suspects often ask how they got caught. Drug agents across
Florida say the same thing: Suspects study court records for clues to avoid
arrest the next time.

Changes seen in 2000

Until the early 1980s, Florida's marijuana trade thrived on pot smuggled from
Jamaica, Mexico and South America. There was little competition from homegrown
"weed."

Back then, agents say, most growers were white males who worked independently
and raised marijuana outdoors on both public land and private property. Grow
houses were rare.

Domestic pot production began to change around 2000. Interviews and court
records indicate that Miami became the center of a cottage industry raising the
highest-quality, most-expensive pot in Florida. The city continues to be a hub
where many growers buy supplies, find bail bondsmen and return to after arrests
in Central and North Florida, court records show.

"In 2000 we had 14 indoor grows, and by last year there were 348," South
Florida HIDTA Director Tim Wagner said of Miami-Dade County. "About five years
ago, we started to realize there was indeed a problem and we needed to do
something about it."

Part of that realization? Money and the violent crime that followed. Growing
1pound of marketable marijuana per plant every three months, a single house can
produce about $1 million a year, drug agents say.

The yield is potent, five to 10 times stronger than it was 20 years ago, say
drug agents who have had the pot tested.

Worth $3,000 to $4,500 a pound wholesale, little of today's super pot is
available for sale in Central Florida. Brevard County is the one area where drug
agents have come across small amounts for retail sale.

Drug agents statewide said they think grow houses ship about 100 pounds every
three months to Miami for distribution in the Northeastern U.S. at up to $8,000
a pound.

All that money can come at high personal risk. Harvest rip-offs have led to
five killings in Brevard since late 2007, when sheriff's Sgt. Alex Herrera said
Brevard's first Cuban-run grow house was discovered.

In one case, three young Cuban-born men, including 21-year-old Alejandro
Valdes of Orlando, await trial on first-degree-murder charges for the Nov. 19,
2007, death of a suspected grower in Grant-Valkaria. Brevard County Assistant
State Attorney Jim McMaster said the victim, Jose Corcho, who left Cuba in 2004,
was hogtied in front of his family and kicked unconscious by robbers who
announced what would happen next, court records show.

"This is the bullet I will kill your husband with," one man told Corcho's
wife as he opened a revolver and pulled out a cartridge to show her, the records
state. "The third Hispanic male loaded the revolver with the one bullet and ...
shot her husband in the back of the head."

Home invaders typically show up when the indoor-grown pot is dried, packaged
and ready for shipment. So drug earrings
regularly send armed men to stand watch the last week until the leaves are
picked and on the way to Miami, agents say.

"The big perception is that marijuana is a mellow drug and everybody's
happy," the DEA's Trouville said. "But these people will kill each other as
quickly as heroin and cocaine dealers."

Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5257 or
hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com.