Not even the ritziest enclaves of Contra Costa County are immune to having large-scale illicit marijuana grow operations, as a CNN report found three homes on the same street in Antioch were busted for not being homes, but instead enormous indoor pot grows.

Should you have watched CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Wednesday night, you saw a report declaring that “family homes in US suburban neighborhoods are being used to grow weed fueling the black market marijuana industry.” And if you watched it, your ears might have perked up when you noticed the story was about homes right here in the Bay Area, in Contra Costa County’s Antioch.

CNN noted that three homes on the very same block were busted for being illegal marijuana grows, and the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) estimates they’ve raided “about 50” Antioch homes for being indoor pot grows. All were large, single-family homes priced at around $1 million. In each case, windows were boarded up to control the lighting (and hide the operations’ visibility), plus had amateur-built ventilation systems, electrical generators, and highly suspect daisy chains of extension cords and power strips.

“As long as the house looks nice and the yard’s taken care of, nobody’s going to question what’s going on inside,” Kevin McInerney, commander in the DCC’s enforcement division, told CNN whilst he was literally in the act of busting one of these illicit grow houses.

And as far as crime goes, the scheme makes plenty of sense. The illegal growing of marijuana is just a misdemeanor in most cases, whether it’s one plant or an entire house full of plants.

CNN’s review of property records found that all of the busted homes showed Chinese owners or occupants. “It’s really the Chinese criminal syndicate that’s dominant,” McInerney said to CNN. “It’s a very profitable crop.”

And CNN found a couple of awfully damned curious connections here. In one case, one of the busted alleged grow houses was owned by Oakland police officer Samson Liu. It had 80 pounds of trimmings onsite at the time of the raid. Liu is currently placed on administrative leave.

In addition to that, the three houses busted on the same block had all had their sales brokered by real estate agent Susannah Hwang. Hwang even owned one of the houses when it was raided for having nothing but marijuana growing inside, and $900,000 worth of it at that. Hwang’s attorney told CNN that “it was being rented at the time, and she was not involved in any illegal activity.”

Related: Illegal Marijuana Farmer Found Guilty for Starting the 2020 Dolan Fire [SFist]

Image: Housing development in the green hills of the Bay Area -- Antioch, California -- suburb of San Francisco (Getty Images)