-from dailynews.com-

By Brandon Lowrey

Police raided five homes today in the western San Fernando Valley, arresting eight people and seizing more than 100 pounds of marijuana and several hundred plants, a Los Angeles police detective said.

Four of the houses hid extensive, indoor growing operations, filled with so many plants police were still taking inventory hours after the late morning raids, said Detective James Williams. Police also found a gun at one of the houses.

“We’re still into this pretty early,” he said.

Four of the five homes, including the one where none of the drug was found, were owned by the same person, Williams said. The identities of those arrested were not available as of 4 p.m., as they hadn’t yet been booked.

Police also weren’t sure just how much marijuana they had seized, but it’s likely a fairly valuable harvest, Williams said.

“They wholesale good stuff at about $6,000 a pound,” he said. “This was looking like high-quality.”

Police also found dried marijuana ready for use.

-from startribune.com-

By Paul Walsh

A drug-trafficking operation that operated for nine years in the Twin Cities area has been busted, federal authorities said today.

The enterprise trafficked in crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, and involved weapons, money laundering and carjacking, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The indictment of 23 people — from Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park, Richfield and Tonka Bay — was unsealed late last week after 19 of the defendants were arrested, the office said.

The indictment alleges that a “safe house” in the 2600 block of Cedar Avenue S. in Minneapolis was used to store, package and distribute illicit drugs.