The Associated Press
EVERETT, Wash. — Three people have been arrested for investigation in marijuana growing operations at two houses, including one where two people were shot to death, federal court documents show.
Thuy Thi Ngoc Nguyen and John Hien Nguyen, who owned the house where the killings occurred, are charged in U.S. District Court in Seattle with conspiracy to manufacture pot and could each face more than 10 years in prison.
Thuy Nguyen was ordered to remain in federal custody Thursday, a day after John Nguyen was arrested in Manchester, N.H. Their ages and relationship could not immediately be determined.
Hai Chi Nguyen, who lived at the other house, has been charged with manufacturing marijuana and released on personal recognizance. His age and relationship to the other Nguyens also was unclear.
The houses, residents and owners came to the attention of federal drug agents about three weeks before July 2, when police found the body of Kevin Meas, 23, and 789 marijuana plants in the basement of the first house, according to court documents.
Linda Nguyen, 20, the sister of Hai Nguyen, was mortally wounded at the same house and died shortly after being taken to a hospital. Detectives subsequently found 372 pot plants and 272 root systems, apparently from recently harvested plants, at the house he owned.
Hai Nguyen told investigators Thuy Nguyen paid him $4,000 to tend the plants and harvest the crop at his home and said he helped the other two men harvest 300 plants at the other house, according to the court filings.
At both houses, electricity meters had been bypassed to hide excessive power use, a typical indication of large-scale marijuana production, Snohomish County sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Richardson, a member of the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, told The Herald of Everett.
Law enforcement officials would not comment on a potential link between the marijuana grows and the killings but said others apparently were involved in the pot operations farms and more arrests are expected.
“Three people didn’t do all of this by themselves,” Richardson said. “We’re working to identify other people and round them up.”
He said investigators had seen a growing number of sophisticated indoor marijuana growing operations run by people with ties to Southeast Asia.
A tip in May about a marijuana growing operation in Seattle led investigators to the two Everett houses the next month, court records show.
“I believe the DEA was in the fledgling stages of the investigation when this (the killings) happened,” Richardson said.
Hai Nguyen told investigators that on July 2, Thuy Nguyen called John Nguyen and said that something had happened at the first house and that Linda Nguyen “is shot on the ground,” records show.
John Nguyen, Hai Nguyen and Hai’s brother Tam found Linda Nguyen wounded just inside the front door, put her into a car, then drove to the other house, after which Hai Nguyen and his girlfriend tried to drive her to a hospital but got lost and called 911. Meas’ body was found in the ensuing search of the first house. Both lived there and had been shot in the head.