Author : Rick Archer
In December 2005, Fred Strunk, Brian Gibson, and Greg Compton were arrested for their part in constructing and operating a secret marijuana farm in a cave under their house. Their pot farm was located on Dixon Springs Road in eastern Trousdale County, Tennessee. This area is about 40 miles northeast of Nashville. Trousdale County is not exactly a well-known center for criminal activity. Located in the hills of rural northern Tennessee, Trousdale is the smallest county in the state. This story seemed like an episode straight out of the Dukes of Hazzard - three super-smart rogues trying to outwit the hick country sheriff! However, this time it was the police who came away the winner.
What the police discovered was nothing short of amazing. Operating on reports of suspicious activity, they raided a beautiful A-frame home built in the middle of nowhere. From the outside, the pot house looked like a beautiful vacation home out in the woods, but investigators quickly realized the exterior served as a prop designed to conceal the amazing pot farm below. There was a lot more going on in that house than met the eye.
In an underground cavern located beneath the stylish A-frame home, the police found a sophisticated operation which grew as much as 100 pounds of marijuana every eight weeks. This secret high-tech underground cave seemed more likely to be part of a Hollywood drug movie too crazy to believe, except that in this case it was real.
Using two rooms, our clever crooks were able to generate 12 to 14 crops a year. Each crop had an estimated street value around $500,000 or more. Do the math. At this rate, 13 crops a year would bring in $6-8 Million.
That's a lot more than you or I make, yes? The difference is that you and I aren't going to jail. This incident became the biggest pot bust in Middle Tennessee history.
PICTURES OF THE POT FARM
This is a first look at the sophisticated underground marijuana farm that the cops discovered.
The house was built on top of a natural cave, but investigators say no one lived there. The house wasn’t even furnished. Hidden inside the house was a secret passageway into a cave.
A corridor led from the hidden doorway into the cave. The corridor had cinderblock walls, a concrete ceiling and floor.
The thick metal door to the secret passageway was held in place by a hydraulic motor. If someone didn't want you to enter, you would probably need a small bomb to get in.
Behind the hydraulic door, there was a 40 foot long sloping corridor that led downward to the cave.
The cave itself stretched 250 feet (nearly the length of a football field!) Inside the cave there were offices, living quarters, and a growing area. Our rogues spent no time at all in the house itself.
The office space came first, then a living area furnished with three or four colorful bunk beds for camping out in the cave, and a restroom with a shower and plenty of toiletries. Behind the restroom was a kitchen with a fully stocked pantry, air conditioning and microwave. All the comforts of home, only this cave was meant for business.
More than 1,000 marijuana plants were grown deep underground. There were two growing areas - one held starter plants and the other held maturing plants. Each room had its own irrigation system. The lights and climate control kept the air at the perfect temperature: 87 degrees.
One room housed 500 to 600 small marijuana plants. In the picture above, you can see the clever irrigation system laid on top of each 5 gallon bucket. A few well-timed drips a day worked wonders. Plants grew faster in this controlled environment than they would have grown naturally outside.
The second area had plants that were nearly ready to harvest. In this room you could see 500 to 600 plants as tall as six feet. Once the plants were harvested, their buckets were filled with new seedlings.
Just behind the growing area is the work space with all the equipment to keep the operation running.
ronically, none of the three men who were charged with growing marijuana in that cave actually lived in Middle Tennessee. Nor did the investigators think the drugs were sold in Trousdale County. Apparently the growers thought that would be too dangerous so they took their crops elsewhere to sell. More likely they took it to nearby Nashville.
The operation was enormous. They would grow 100 pounds of pot every 8 weeks. The job of harvesting the marijuana was so big that they actually brought in outside labor!
To harvest the illegal crop, the men would hire a half-dozen Hispanic workers in Arizona and drive them all the way to Tennessee. For part of the journey the windows on the van would be covered so the workers did not know where they were. When they got close to home, they told the workers to put on blindfolds. They would drive the workers right into the cave, take off their masks, and let them out to begin working. (I wonder how on earth they talked these men into being blindfolded!)
And yes, the operation was quite profitable. The investigators said the men were growing enough marijuana to make $6 million to $8 million a year. Who would guess that farming could be so profitable!
THE ESCAPE ROUTE
n case the growers had to make a run for it, they built an escape route. It ran 150 yards from the cave to the surface.
First there was a hidden door in the ceiling of the pot growing area followed by a long ladder.
As you can see above, the ceiling escape hatch was painted the same color as the ceiling to create a disguised escape route. I suppose the idea was if they needed to leave fast, they could crawl into the ceiling, kick the ladder away, replace the concealed entrance, and sneak away.
Just beneath the ground, there is another trap door. Here a hydraulic jack lifts the second trap door, which is hidden underneath a boulder. The escape hatch lets out 100 yards from the home. No one driving by would have any idea what lies beneath.
SO HOW DID THEY GET CAUGHT?
This place was a modern fortress. In addition to the secret entrance and the secret escape hatch, there were surveillance cameras everywhere. With such a sophisticated and well-hidden operation, surely you wonder how did these villains ever got caught?
I wondered the same thing. In October 2006 my friend Gary Richardson sent me an email that contained all the pictures listed above. The pictures had captions included, but there was no story that accompanied the pictures. I wondered where the Pot Farm was located and what the story was. I asked Gary if he knew anything, but he replied he didn't know the story behind it.
I loved the pictures! But without the story, my imagination was going wild. What could possibly have tripped up such a terrific operation? Where did they make their mistake?
Unable to be satisfied with just the pictures, I decided to give the Internet and Google a try. I had one very big clue: the first picture said "a house in Tennessee." So I typed in "marijuana bust tennessee". Within seconds, I had the story. Isn't Google incredible?
Now I was able to learn how they got caught. I will give you the answer in a moment, but first see if you can guess:
1. A truck carrying marijuana got pulled over by State Police.
2. Electrical disruptions in the area made officials suspicious.
3. Husband cheated on wife and wife turned him in for revenge.
4. Argument about how to split the money turned one man into a rat.
5. Putting too much cash in one bank made a bank official suspicious.
6. A Mexican farm worker hired to help harvest the crop tipped the authorities.
7. A dealer got caught and pointed the finger up the chain to save his own neck.
8. A nearby neighbor was curious to learn why no one seemed to live in the house.
9. A huge infrared signature gave them away. The heat alone coming out from the ventilation system would appear on any thermal imaging device.
The huge thirst for electricity proved to be their downfall. The electricity company detected that a large amount of electricity was disappearing. Since there was no simple answer to account for the problem, the company had to track the problem down.
Investigators eventually discovered the illegal splices and alerted the police.
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