By Justin Berton
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police raided three alleged marijuana grow houses, including one where a couple with young children were cultivating hundreds of plants, officers said Monday.
Jon Rahoi, 36, and his wife, Yan Ling Rahoi, 40, were arrested Sunday at their home on the 100 block of Cresta Vista Drive near Mount Davidson, police said. Three children in the house, all under age 8, were turned over to relatives.
The couple also own one of the other houses raided Sunday, a residence on nearby Dorchester Way, police said. Officers who pulled plants out of that house arrested Jon Rahoi’s brother, 27-year-old Robin Rahoi, police said.
A third raid, at a house on the 1400 block of Kansas Street on Potrero Hill, resulted in the arrest of Miguel Esteban Ponce, 37, police said.
In all, officers seized 5,900 marijuana plants, police said. The homes were rigged with illegal wiring schemes to bypass the utility meter, police said.
All four suspects were charged with cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and theft of utility services. Jon Rahoi and Yan Ling Rahoi were also charged with child endangerment.
“It’s an extraordinary amount,” Officer Boaz Mariles said of the haul. “It’s clear they weren’t growing for medicinal purposes. They were using it as a criminal enterprise, cutting into power lines and creating a dangerous public safety hazard.”
Police and fire officials have said grow houses in residential neighborhoods represent a fire threat.
Copyright 2010 San Francisco Chronicle