PHILADELPHIA, May 12 (UPI) -- Philadelphia police ran into a national trend when they raided a house earlier this week, finding themselves in an indoor marijuana farm.
The Philadelphia Inquirer said Wednesday during what was expected to be a routine search for a single suspect, police found about 700 shoulder-high marijuana plants, van-loads of growing equipment and 130 pounds of packaged marijuana.
The discovery is part of a national trend, which the Drug Enforcement Administration says is trickling down from Canada, where indoor hydroponic farms, or "grow ops" have reached mammoth proportions.
In January, police north of Toronto raided an operation hidden in a former brewery and reported seizing 30,000 plants.
Hydroponics is an intense method of indoor growing used by legitimate businesses to produce high-yield, year-round vegetables. Plants typically grow bigger and faster than they would outdoors.
The DEA reported that in 2000 a little more than a million kilograms (2.2 million pounds)of marijuana were confiscated at the Mexican border and 1,600 kilos (3,500 pounds)were seized coming in from Canada.
But last year, 1.3 million kilos (2.86 million pounds) were seized coming in from Mexico and 9,000 kilos (19,800 pounds) from Canada.
