Follow @PalisadianPostWith a white picket fence and an immaculate lawn, the house located on the edge of a cul-de-sac on Bienveneda Avenue has all the markings of a perfectly normal family home, except that looks can be deceiving, especially in the marijuana business. Earlier this month, a group of uniformed LAPD officers swarmed the blue-colored home at 520 Bienveneda, below Sunset. Inside they found more than 50 plant containers and marijuana stems representing a recent harvest. In the garage, which had been covered from wall to wall with foil and other reflective material, police recovered 14 immature marijuana plants, four grow lamps and two electronic ballasts. ’Unfortunately, it appears that they had completed a harvest,’ said Michael Moore,’LAPD’s senior lead officer’for’Pacific Palisades. No one was there when police entered. The 1,138-sq.-ft. home appears to have been used solely for the growth and cultivation of marijuana for some time now, according to police. ’If anybody was there, we would have made arrests,’ Moore said. Moore said that the growers had tapped into an outside electric line to draw power for their operation, noting that the DWP notifies authorities when increased electricity is used beyond what is considered normal. The indoor growth of marijuana requires considerable energy and thousands of watts of power. In the Bienveneda home, police recovered more than 5,000 watts of lights. Additionally, the growers had removed the washer-and-dryer unit from the garage to make additional room for their operation, and installed vents on top of the garage, which drew several neighbors’ suspicions. ’They started constructing the vents around six months ago,’ said a neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous. ‘The whole thing was very suspicious. There were three men coming and going in the late hours of the night.’ Some of the home’s windows were tinted, and strange orange glare lights behind the garage were used to distract curious onlookers from noticing the special upgrades. The neighbor said that the men might have left a vehicle parked in front of the home, speculating that this may have been a decoy to give the appearance that someone might be home. Neighbors said earlier this week that two of the three men ‘had come to the house and were cleaning the place up,’ well after the police raid took place on June 5. The property, owned by Edward Young, a dermatologist in Tarzana, was bought for $1.15 million in June 2008 at the height of the real estate boom. Last year, the home was put on the market with a listing price of $1.4 million, but did not sell, according to property records obtained by the Palisadian-Post. Later, the owner tried unsuccessfully to lease the property for $7,000. In February, the home was once again placed on the market for $1.195 million but was removed after 10 days. Young could not be reached for comment, despite several attempts to contact him by the Palisadian-Post. So far, no arrests have been made. ’We are trying to see if the [district attorney] is going to file an arrest warrant,’ said LAPD Detective Ruben Moreno on Monday. The investigation is ongoing. The Palisadian-Post learned about the police action the day of the seizure but chose to hold the story at the request of investigating officers.
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