Tucson Region

Huge pot stash found in Foothills

Nearly 7 tons of marijuana was found stashed in a Foothills house, authorities said Tuesday. The 13,500 pounds of marijuana is the most ever found in a single house in Pima County, said Capt. David Neri, head of the multiagency Counter Narcotics Alliance. Alliance officers, Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Tucson police and Pima County sheriff's deputies discovered the marijuana in the home in the 6600 block of Donna Beatrix Circle, near East Skyline Drive and North Alvernon Way, on Monday night.

No arrests were made. The bust occurred after agents followed a vehicle from a known drug smuggling corridor near the Arizona-Mexico border into Tucson, said Anthony J. Coulson, assistant special agent in charge of the local DEA office. Agents followed the vehicle to the Foothills home, he said. Agents executed a search warrant and found the marijuana, worth about $20 million, as well as a gun and a cell phone, he said. There was no one in the home, but Coulson believes that whoever was in the house escaped through a broken window and likely suffered some injury. There were people guarding the drugs, Coulson said. But it is not likely that anyone was living there because marijuana filled the home "floor to ceiling, every room," he said. According to the Pima County assessor's Web site, the home, built in the early 1970s, is 1,670 square feet in size. The owner, contacted Tuesday night, would not comment. Coulson said he was not sure where the pot was headed, but the fact that they were packaged leads agents to believe that it was ready to be shipped out. Frank LaBan, who lives near the stash house, was surprised at the amount of marijuana seized, but not that the drug activity was going on there. "It did not look like anyone was living there," said LaBan, a retired University of Arizona professor. "There were never any women or children but there were always cars going in and out." LaBan said the neighborhood - small, quiet and nestled in the Foothills - probably attracted the smugglers to the area. "Nothing ever happens here," said LaBan, a resident for nearly 32 years. "But, in the Foothills, there have been drug busts, too." Coulson said the bust shows smugglers will use homes throughout the area to hide their drugs. "It is apparent that this major seizure clearly shows that drug-trafficking organizations are making use of homes in all different types of areas of Tucson," he said. In 2004, 46 stash houses in the Tucson area were seized by authorities, 14 of which had 1,000 pounds or more of narcotics, Neri said.

Stash homes not only bring drugs into neighborhoods, Neri said, they also bring violence. "We do typically find weapons in stash houses," he said. "It is a clear-cut danger to the neighborhood." The only seizure larger than this one occurred in 1986, when 25 tons of marijuana was found in five stash houses in the 1100 block of East Speedway, Neri said. Residents have been asked to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior and to remain vigilant as to what takes place in their neighborhoods. Any suspicious activity can be reported to the alliance at 547-8800 or 88-CRIME.