Police stumbled on New Jersey’s largest indoor marijuana growing operation after an officer smelled burning plants coming from a house chimney in Monroe Township on 17 February 2010.[1] Officer Thomas Lucasiewicz knocked at 558 Spotswood-Englishtown Road, found resident Thu N. Nguyen burning unusable plant parts in a wood stove, and arrested him.[2][1]
The search found three basement grow areas plus one in the master bedroom: 1,064 plants, about 50 pounds of packaged marijuana, $4,000 cash and a four-camera surveillance system watching the house exterior.[2][1] Over the next four days officers searched homes in Millstone, Old Bridge, Manahawkin and Manalapan plus a Barnegat house being set up as a sixth site, bringing the totals to 3,370 growing plants, 130 pounds of harvested marijuana and $66,000 in cash.[2] In all but one house the electrical meter had been bypassed to power the grow lights, bringing theft-of-services charges, and floor boards had been cut open for auxiliary wiring.[2]
Three people were arrested in February: alleged leader Tuan Ahn Dang and Ngoc H. Bui at the Millstone house, and Nguyen in Monroe.[2][1] Dang allegedly offered a State Police detective bribes of $100,000 and $150,000 for his release after his arrest.[2] On 10 November 2010 a state grand jury indicted Dang on 23 counts including leading a narcotics trafficking network, which carries mandatory life in prison with 25 years of parole ineligibility; Bui and Nguyen were indicted as co-defendants, and Tin Pham was indicted separately for allegedly using fraudulent mortgage loans to buy the Barnegat house.[2] The defendants were described as Vietnamese, naturalized as United States or Canadian citizens, and the authorities valued the crop at $10 million.[2][1]
