Marijuana find linked to pipe bomb in San Bruno home

By Brigid Gaffikin, Bay City News Service

January 2, 2006

SAN BRUNO (BCN) - San Mateo County narcotics investigators detonated a pipe bomb hidden under a San Bruno man's mattress Friday when they went to arrest him in connection with an elaborate indoor marijuana grow in a nearby rental property.

San Bruno firefighters discovered the pot around 8:15 p.m. after responding to neighbors' reports of sparks coming from the roof of a home in the 3100 block of Fleetwood Drive, Special Agent Supervisor Leo Capovilla, a county narcotics task force investigator, said.

When firefighters went inside the home "they stumbled over a marijuana grow inside the house. The entire house had been converted into a marijuana operation," he said.

Some 1,298 plants with a combined potential street value of more than $1 million, were growing throughout the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, which had been converted into an indoor greenhouse complete with overhead lights and a sophisticated filtering and ventilation system, Capovilla said. The plants ranged from immature seedlings to plants as high as 4 feet

The transformation from living space to massive grow operation had taken its toll on the home.

"The house is trashed," Capovilla said.

Authorities are in the process of contacting the home's landlord.

Firefighters alerted law enforcement to their discovery. When narcotics task force investigators arrived at the home they found a high-velocity AK-47 and other weapons along with the pot.

Nobody was at the home at the time, Capovilla said. But "it could have been really ugly for law enforcement going in," he said. "Somebody has fortified the place ... in a nice little neighborhood."

Information in the home led investigators to another San Bruno home, in the 600 block of Green Avenue, where they arrested Aaron George Seits, a self-employed electrician, on marijuana possession and cultivation charges and weapons charges.

After searching Seits' residence, investigators came across a pipe bomb, along with a police scanner, additional weapons, ammunition and stolen property.

The pipe bomb was detonated after Seits' home and neighboring residences were evacuated, Capovilla said.

The pot haul wasn't especially unusual, Capovilla said, adding that there is a fairly high demand for marijuana in California. In October and November the county's narcotics task force dealt with much larger finds in Daly City and San Bruno, each in yielding more than 3,000 square feet of marijuana, he said. A properly conducted grow can raise plants to maturity in four months, he said.

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