PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The suspected co-ringleader of an illegal marijuana grow operation was arrested in her Rainier Beach home.
In all, five people were arrested, including a woman and her husband, also described as the “co-ringleaders.”
Coordinated arrests went down early Wednesday morning in Seattle, Federal Way, Tacoma, and Lakewood.
Neighbors say they long suspected something illegal was going on there. For one thing, they could smell it.
Lakewood Police began investigating complaints about this house back in 2021. The investigation languished until last June, leading to the boarded-up windows.
“At 4:20, we saw spotlights and heard ‘8-3-1-9, come out with your hands up,’” that was the early morning wakeup call on Wednesday morning for Toni Porturas and her neighbors around Maybelle Lane Southwest.
“I have pictures of them,” said Porturas. “They’re backing out of the house, the cops have their guns drawn.”
She saw 56-year-old Hui Chen, identified as a ringleader, and another alleged accomplice.
That scene was repeated at three different homes in two counties early Wednesday morning.
A reported 11 state and local agencies from Pierce and King Counties, led by Lakewood Police, moved in to break up what they say was an organized illegal marijuana grow operation.
Chen’s wife, 65-year-old Eileen Hy, also described as a ringleader, was arrested in Seattle at their Rainier Beach home with the Lake Washington view.
Were you surprised? A neighbor was asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” said the neighbor, who wanted to remain anonymous. “They were very quiet people down there.”
Did he have any inkling they were growing marijuana?
“None at all,” he said.
The couple came to the attention of law enforcement back in 2018 when the house they owned in Federal Way caught fire, exposing a marijuana grow operation. It was there that, last week, two additional accomplices were taken into custody.
Toni Porturas says the state needs stiffer laws to combat this.
“If I want to put a storage shed in my yard,” said Porturas, “I’ve got to get a permit from the city of Lakewood. How about a grow operation? So, I don’t know what else to say.”
She and other neighbors say some people showed up here Saturday and cleared more stuff out of the house with the help of Lakewood police, even though neighbors were told this remains a crime scene.
According to the Pierce County jail roster, all five people have bailed out.
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