What police are finding inside Maine’s illegal marijuana grow houses

A garage and multiple rooms inside a Cornville home were converted into illegal marijuana grows, producing about 90 pounds of processed marijuana.

It costs about $1,800 to buy a pound of wholesale marijuana, which means 90 pounds would be $162,000, an employee at East Coast Gold dispensary in Bangor said Monday.

Federal court records provide some of the only information we have about life inside the dozens of illegal marijuana grow operations that have been busted throughout the state. They paint a picture of what police have called unsafe living conditions, with exposed electrical wiring and marijuana in various stages of growth throughout the homes.

Law enforcement have raided more than 40 properties across Maine in the last year, resulting in hundreds of pounds of seized marijuana and thousands of plants. Civil forfeiture requests from the federal government shed some light into how those investigations work.

Electric bills as high as a hotel

Extremely high power use for a residential home is cited in all four forfeiture requests.

A Hanson Road house in the Kennebec County town of China — bought for $260,000 in March 2021 — used just 76 kilowatt-hours in December 2021, at a cost of $21.54, according to court records. By August 2023, that skyrocketed to 61,519 kilowatt-hours at a cost of $12,342.

A large retail store or hotel would use about 60,000 kilowatt-hours a month, Versant spokesperson Marissa Minor said. It’s similar to leaving 1,400 60-watt incandescent lights on for a month.

A Corinna property used 44,331 kWh in July 2023, at a cost of $11,719, according to court records.

During August, September and October 2023, a property on East Kennebec Road in Machias used about 10,000 kilowatt-hours a month. In Cornville, a property used 36,210 kilowatt-hours in December 2023 at its highest usage.

Sprite, suitcases and false floors

At an illegal marijuana grow house in Norridgewock , a calendar hanging on a wall with Chinese words marked the days plants were watered. The Bangor Daily News also saw jugs of leftover fertilizer , pots filled with soil and multiple packages of Sprite inside the house.

Marijuana was grown on all three levels of the China home and its garage. Windows were covered to keep natural light out and there were timed artificial lights, records show. None of the bedrooms were used for sleeping. The people working at the grow house were living out of suitcases in the living room. Ninety grow tables were in the home and garage, records said.

The smell of marijuana lingers on someone when they walk out of a legal grow facility – and that’s quality cannabis, the East Coast Gold worker who declined to be identified said Monday.

The illegal grow houses may have mold or bugs on the plants, when it’s cut down and hung to dry, the employee said. It would likely smell terrible inside the home.

“You would smell dank,” he said. “You would smell kind of unbearable at times.”

In Machias, the FBI, Washington County Sheriff’s Office and other federal agencies searched a property in December and found “a large-scale, sophisticated marijuana growing operation” inside two barns, records show. Hoses connected trash cans full of water into a watering system where each plant had its own supply.

The Corinna house — across the street from the town hall — was purchased from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for $140,000 in March 2021, according to court records. The two-story house had false flooring in rooms to lift marijuana plants about a foot off the ground, which allowed a watering system to run underneath.

Each of the nine grow rooms had humidifiers, dehumidifiers and ventilators to regulate the temperature and humidity, court records said. Exposed wiring throughout the house in an “extensive network” provided power to each room.

Nearly the entire house in Cornville was turned into an illegal marijuana grow after it was purchased, with cash, for $204,000 in March 2021. Grow lights hung over empty plastic tubs in the basement with a watering system connected. Another basement room had growing plants, with lights and an automatic watering system, court records said.

Massive amounts of marijuana

A Machias police officer drove by the home in November that sported a large electrical service box and noticed the smell of “unburnt cannabis” in the air. An electrician who had done work on the house told police he had also smelled marijuana, court records said.

More than 2,600 marijuana plants were found throughout the Machias property, with 11 rows of marijuana hanging from the basement ceiling to dry. Police found a $9,363 invoice from a growing supply store.

Roughly 90 pounds of processed cannabis and 700 plants were seized by police in Cornville, according to court records.

That would have cost about $162,000 for the dispensary to buy, the employee said. The illegal facilities likely sell for significantly cheaper, which means there’s less room for any profit, the employee said, based on his experience in the industry.

“There’s no way to be able to process and grow and then sell your product for $4,” he said. “There’s literally no margin for any money.”