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Suspected pot house burns

MUKWONAGO TOWNSHIP -- The home of an indoor marijuana-growing operation discovered this month by authorities burned to the ground overnight.

"We’re looking at this as a suspicious fire," Waukesha County Sheriff’s Detective Steve Pederson said. The sheriff’s department was called about the fire on Sugden Road at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, he said. The Mukwonago Fire Department was already on the scene.

All evidence had been removed during the July 2 search, Pederson said.

The father and son linked to the property, ages 64 and 44, face charges of theft of electricity and manufacturing controlled substances.

Waukesha County Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Unit Commander Capt. Charles Wood has said the operation was capable of producing three crops per year. The current crop was valued at more than $100,000, he said.

We Energies also discovered that electricity was routed to bypass the electric meter, Wood said.

More than 100 marijuana plants, along with fertilizer, growing supplies and literature on growing marijuana, were seized from the home, according to the search warrant.

The residence was modified solely for the growing of marijuana, including an extensive industrial-type exhaust system, an elaborate watering system with several hundreds of gallons of fertilized water and at least 16 electrical ballasts for supporting vented lighting. In addition, doors were reinforced with steel plating, and windows were covered to prevent entry or detection, Wood has said.

The residence has no working plumbing, and neither of the suspects was living there, he has said. The home had an assessed value of $182,000, according to county records.